London close: Footsie slammed again
London took another lurch lower in late trade as an early three figure slide on Wall Street added to the downbeat picture over here, with financial plays and property issues in trouble.
The leading index traded down as much 180 points towards the close of play in response to US gloom ahead of tomorrow's Thanksgiving holiday, although a little of that was clawed back in the final minutes.
Blue chip risers could be counted on one hand, with oil major and rumoured bid target BG best of the bunch as oil prices hovered near a record high just shy of $100 a barrel. Shell provided some company, although BP fell late in the session.
Northern Rock, Barclays and HSBC were among the biggest losers on worries there is a lot more pain to come out yet from the credit crisis.
Northern Rock confirmed more approaches at well below the current price today. Meanwhile, Bank of England deputy governor John Gieve has warned there may yet be more turmoil to come in financial markets and that money markets could feel a bigger squeeze before the end of the year.
Minutes from the last Bank of England rate setting meeting showing policymakers voted 7-2 in favour of keeping interest rates on hold at 5.75%, with Gieve joining David Blanchflower in a call for lower borrowing costs.
Buy-to-let mortgage lender Paragon plunged again on further fears it may have to launch a £280m rights issue if other funding arrangements do not become available by February.
Barratt Developments tumbled to its lowest in over four years, just two days after warning of a tightening of the UK housing market. Fellow housebuilder Persimmon joined the retreat.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail & General Trust dropped to its lowest in 4½ years despite an 11% rise in full year underlying pre-tax profit as analysts remained unimpressed and on news chief executive Charles Sinclair is to step down.
Some analysts expressed disappointment at a 7% hike in operating profit excluding some items to £322m. Others pointed to hedge fund shorting in response to the unspectacular update.
Anglo American, Xstrata and Antofagasta were also out of luck, with copper prices falling and gold still below $800 an ounce. BHP Billiton's bid approach for Rio Tinto is also attracting mounting criticism.
Separately, Regal Petroleum has joined forces with Shell to develop its MEX-GOL and SV gas fields in Ukraine. Shell will buy a 51% stake for $50m in cash and pay the first $360m of the capital expenditure to develop the fields if the deal is agreed.
Travel firm Thomas Cook, the merged KarstadtQuelle travel arm and MyTravel, has upped its estimate of annual savings from the merger to €200m from €140m. It also expects to recommend dividends per share each full year in the range of 40-50% of earnings per share, split one third/two-thirds. "Trading in all divisions has continued broadly in line with the 1 November announcement and we continue to be encouraged by bookings for 2007/08," it added.
Bingo hall operator Top Ten has warned its dividend is under threat because of difficult market conditions. Trading at depressed levels will remain until the effects of the current cost reduction programme begin to feed through in 2008, it said and if current trading conditions persist the board anticipates that the second half of the year will only be marginally profitable. Interim profits fell to £381,000 from £846,000 due to the impact of the smoking ban and double taxation.
FTSE 100 - Risers
BG Group (BG.) 996.50p +2.52%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,003.00p +1.78%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,019.00p +1.66%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 531.00p +1.53%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,484.00p +0.20%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Northern Rock (NRK) 84.80p -12.58%
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) 525.50p -8.93%
Schroders (SDR) 1,313.00p -7.54%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 1,138.00p -7.33%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,254.00p -6.49%
Persimmon (PSN) 752.00p -5.88%
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Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA) 136.70p -5.59%
Next (NXT) 1,748.00p -5.56%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 460.00p -5.50%
Standard Life (SL.) 232.75p -5.39%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 468.00p +6.73%
CSR (CSR) 575.00p +4.93%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,201.00p +4.71%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 199.00p +4.60%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 323.00p +4.28%
Carillion (CLLN) 343.00p +3.78%
eaga (EAGA) 165.75p +3.43%
BSS Group (BTSM) 375.75p +2.31%
F&C Commercial Property Trust (FCPT) 96.75p +1.57%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 106.00p +1.44%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 80.00p -36.00%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,320.00p -11.76%
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 207.00p -10.58%
QXL Ricardo (QXL) 1,476.00p -8.89%
St James's Place (STJ) 256.00p -7.83%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,739.00p -7.79%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,300.00p -7.60%
UK Coal (UKC) 404.00p -7.29%
Keller Group (KLR) 817.00p -7.11%
Rightmove (RMV) 486.75p -7.11%
