London close: Footsie finishes above 6700
After a bright start London failed to maintain its momentum in the afternoon session, as miners traded off their best levels and housebuilders occupied the bottom positions on further signs of weakness in the housing sector.
Data from property website Hometrack revealed that UK house prices fell for the first time in two years during October, taking the average cost of a home in England and Wales down 0.1% from September to £176,100.
Meanwhile, UK mortgage approvals fell to their lowest in two years last month, down at 102,000 from a revised 108,000 in August, the Bank of England said.
Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon all lost ground.
Anglo American, Kazakhmys and Vedanta finished among the best performers on strong metal prices and news that Xstrata has bid A$3.1bn ($2.8bn) for Australia's fifth-largest nickel producer Jubilee Mines.
Life insurance groups were mixed as the battle for Resolution warmed up. It has withdrawn its recommendation of Friday's bid from Standard Life. Standard offered £4.9bn for Resolution, but was immediately trumped by a cash bid from Pearl. Aviva picked up on vague consolidation talk, while Resolution's spurned partner Friends Provident was also in demand.
J Sainsbury retreated on fears that suitor Delta Two is finding it difficult to secure additional funding to buy the supermarket firm.
Northern Rock headed south despite news that a third consortium has joined the race to gobble up the troubled mortgage lender.
Private equity group Cerberus Capital Management and financial services firm GMAC, owned by car giant General Motors, are set to compete with private equity outfit JC Flowers and Richard Branson's Virgin.
Vodafone edged higher, buoyed by Merrill Lynch increasing its price target on the telecoms titan to 212p from 190p. The broker said its conviction had strengthened ahead of interim figures following additional positive indications on mobile data from Telefonica and AT&T, plus improving voice elasticity from Orange in the UK and Spain.
Home Retail was another on the upturn, after Deutsche Bank raised its price target to 430p from 415p.
Royal Bank of Scotland shrugged off a negative rating from Citigroup. Citigroup restarted coverage of RBS with 'sell' advice and 450p price target, having previously had a 'buy' rating on the shares and 800p target.
A UBS downgrade to 'neutral' from 'buy' sent Cairn Energy lower, with the broker suggesting risks in the UK exploration and production investment sector are now less positively skewed.
Kier reported a good start to the new financial year, with first quarter trading in-line with expectations. The construction division has had a strong start with a record level of revenue achieved in the first quarter while its housebuilding division has made a satisfactory start to the year despite negative buyer sentiment and uncertainties in the mortgage lending market.
Steel products supplier Metalrax lost almost one third of its value after disclosing its financial performance for the year 2007 will be significantly worse than current market expectations. Chief executive Andrew Richardson has initiated an in-depth review of the group's activities, which is likely to result in possible asset write-downs in underperforming businesses and further restructuring of some of the group's activities.
Power supply protection specialist Chloride saw first half pre-tax profit surge 30%, with buoyant market conditions expected to result in further progress in the second half.
Self-storage group Lok'n Store reported an adjusted pre-tax profit of £580,600, announced a maiden dividend and said it is confident it will continue to deliver substantial growth in value.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Compass Group (CPG) 341.75p +3.64%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,230.00p +3.43%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,514.00p +3.42%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,352.00p +3.30%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 625.00p +2.46%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 753.50p +2.45%
Friends Provident (FP.) 179.00p +2.34%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 642.00p +2.23%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 432.75p +2.12%
Capita Group (CPI) 732.00p +1.81%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 230.50p -3.56%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 631.00p -3.07%
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Hammerson (HMSO) 1,029.00p -2.83%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 552.50p -2.30%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 441.25p -2.11%
BAE Systems (BA.) 496.00p -1.39%
British Airways (BAY) 437.75p -1.30%
Centrica (CNA) 359.50p -1.30%
Schroders (SDR) 1,476.00p -1.14%
Prudential (PRU) 776.00p -1.08%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 1,912.00p +7.05%
Talvivaara Mining (TALV) 297.25p +6.16%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 202.25p +5.20%
Homeserve (HSV) 1,764.00p +5.13%
Halfords Group (HFD) 362.00p +5.00%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 32.50p +4.00%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 314.25p +3.88%
Misys (MSY) 239.25p +3.68%
Pendragon (PDG) 65.00p +3.59%
eaga (EAGA) 197.00p +3.55%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Beazley Group (BEZ) 166.25p -6.34%
Davis Service Group (DVSG) 531.00p -4.67%
Invista Foundation Property Trust (IFD) 95.25p -4.27%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 634.00p -3.43%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,414.00p -3.26%
Quintain Estates & Development (QED) 596.50p -3.09%
SEGRO (SGRO) 448.75p -2.92%
COLT Telecom Group S.A. (COLT) 184.50p -2.89%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 447.00p -2.83%
Brixton (BXTN) 340.75p -2.78%
