London close: Banks suck life out of Footsie
A poor start on Wall Street and big losses among the banks left London near its worst for the day at the close of trading.
Banks were poor again, despite Barclays announcing a write-down of £1.3bn at its investment banking division, much less than expectations. Analysts seemed happy that the situation is clarified, but the shares still ended in negative territory.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Alliance & Leicester and HBOS were off again today, as was Northern Rock following revelations revealed in a recent secret memo to potential bidders.
Credit checking company Experian took the wooden spoon after it said organic sales growth slowed in the second quarter and anticipates the trend to continue in the second half of its financial year.
Brewer SABMiller was also down despite seeing profits rise 14% in the first half as it warned of a challenging environment. "We expect to make progress in the balance of the year but face a more challenging environment," said the group
British Land has reported no change in net asset value (NAV) per share for the six months to 30 September, with valuation mark-downs in the second quarter offsetting progress made at the start of the year.
Miners were riding high earlier on, but most closed lower. India-focused miner Vedanta Resources posted a 3.9% hike in attributable profit for the first half and said stronger core earnings were down to higher volumes and tight cost control.
Xstrata and Anglo American fell in to the red, as did Antofagasta even though Swiss broker UBS upped its view to 'neutral' from 'sell' with price targets raised to 800p.
Bid duo Carlsberg and Heineken have increased their proposal to brewer Scottish & Newcastle by 30p to 750p per share in cash, calling the offer price "full and fair". S&N is better.
Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier has reaffirmed that it is on track to deliver in 2007 on its goal of a minimum 10% growth in adjusted earnings per share at constant currencies.
Rumours of a bid from France Telecom gave Cable & Wireless a boost. There were also some meaty director buys announced today.
Tate and Lyle and the tobacco companies Imperial and BAT also rallied late in the day on a mixture of bid hopes and defensive appeal
Power supplier National Grid said it continues to make progress, adding that the outlook for the full year remains in line with expectations.
On the 250, Ladbrokes is on the slide after a very poor four months for its core bookmaking business. The high-rolling telephone operation is making up for the shortfall but analysts were unimpressed.
Newspaper group Trinity Mirror said for the ten months to October, underlying advertising revenues have grown marginally year on year.
London Stock Exchange saw operating profit leap 41% in the first half, as expected, and said the contribution from Borsa Italiana in the second half leaves it confident of a good outcome for the full year.
Business information group Euromoney Institutional slumped despite record full year results as it warned that the new year has started slower and could be "testing" if financial markets get worse.
Among the minnows, fuel conservation group Clean Diesel Technologies said it has continued to perform ahead of expectations as it posted its first ever quarterly net profit. Net profit for the third quarter came in at $651,000, compared with the loss of $1.1m in the same period last year.
Computer games helped publisher Superscape said publishing revenues increased 31% in the third quarter. Third quarter trading continued to grow with revenues for the period increasing by 20.9%.
Berkeley Scott said net fee income for the quarter ending September was up 15.4% on the same period last year and increased 23% in the month of October.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 434.00p +2.84%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,801.00p +2.45%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 757.00p +2.23%
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Cable & Wireless (CW.) 184.40p +1.99%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,430.00p +1.93%
Shire (SHP) 1,123.00p +1.72%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Experian Group (EXPN) 429.50p -9.53%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,534.00p -4.42%
British Land (BLND) 912.00p -4.05%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 448.50p -3.96%
DSG International (DSGI) 115.30p -3.76%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 550.50p -3.76%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Collins Stewart (CLST) 184.25p +3.22%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,501.00p +3.02%
BSS Group (BTSM) 442.00p +2.79%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 28.00p +2.75%
Catlin Group (CGL) 481.50p +2.67%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 351.00p +2.63%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 415.50p -13.48%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 344.00p -9.35%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 145.50p -8.78%
Minerva (MNR) 179.00p -8.67%
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 269.00p -7.16%
Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 300.00p -7.05%
