London close: US drags Footsie lower
More gloomy US economic data and huge losses at Merrill Lynch unsettled Wall Street and left Footsie well in the red by the close.
Miners turned down sharply on fears of a US slowdown. Weaker copper and gold prices also hit mining stocks, which dominated the laggards. Vedanta, Kazakhmys and Anglo American all closed lower.
Housebuilders remained in demand following Barratt Developments' confirmation that it has continued to trade satisfactorily with prices holding up and costs reduced. The shares closed sharply higher and also prompted demand for peers Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon.
Positive comment on the sector from Morgan Stanley also boosted property stocks. British Land leads the sector up after the US investment bank changed its rating on the stock to "overweight" from "underweight". Land Securities and Hammerson are the pick of the rest of the sector.
There were some positive signs from the retail, with Associated British Foods, Home Retail, Kesa and HMV all higher after trading updates.
Associated British Foods said group revenue for the first 16 weeks to 5 January were 13% ahead of the same period last year driven by strong growth from discount retailer Primark, agriculture, grocery and ingredients.
Home Retail Group said it expects full year profit to be towards the upper end of market forecasts.
HMV climbs after the music and games retailer said full year profit is expected to be towards the upper end of market expectations as it gave a bullish update of trade during the Christmas period.
Comet owner Kesa is the biggest FTSE 250 riser after it reported a 1.7% rise in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period thanks to the continued high demand for flat screen televisions and laptops.
Pub owner Enterprise Inns said despite difficult trading conditions underlying profit in the 15 weeks to January is running broadly in line with the same period last year and earnings per share is ahead.
Drinks firm SABMiller said its underlying financial performance has been in line with expectations with lager volume growth 7% for the third quarter. The update failed to impress the market, and the shares moved south, dragging Diageo along for the ride.
Meanwhile, the takeover of Scottish & Newcastle came closer to fruition as the board agreed to talks with the Carlsberg/Heineken consortium. Commencement of talks indicates that the consortium is prepared to consider making a bid of at least 800p per share.
Away from Footsie, department store Debenhams rallied after upbeat trading statement released on Tuesday.
Among the small-caps, international shipping company Goldenport steams ahead after disclosing that current trading is in line with expectations and that 88% of its total container fleet available days in 2008 are already secured under period employment.
Sticking with the nautical theme, Braemar Shipping breezes higher on expectations that full year profits will be significantly ahead of last year. The company said deep-sea tanker chartering rates have recovered sharply over the last two months, after being becalmed in the summer.
Electronic payments company Earthport is firmer after it revealed revenue in the second half 2007 was up 173% at £1.1m from the £0.4m recorded in the second half of 2006, and was 57% higher than the £0.7m seen in the first half of 2007.
Character Group is sharply higher again on a "buy" recommendation from broker Charles Stanley after the group's upbeat trading statement yesterday.
Metals and minerals trader Wogen is marked higher after more than tripling full year profits, despite a slight fall in turnover.
HSBC has added "NetReveal", the retail banking software application developed by information intelligence specialist Detica, to its suite of fraud prevention measures.
Elsewhere in the software sector IBS OPENSystems is punished after predicting full year results would be slightly below market expectations. The company expects the current difficult trading conditions to prevail throughout 2008, though it remains confident of gaining market share.
Shareholders in pharmaceuticals group Hikma have become used to upbeat trading statements so this morning's declaration from the group that there has been no change to management's expectations for its 2008 prospects since its trading statement on 14 December was a bit of let-down.
Personal debt consultant Fairpoint is in profit after it said it had gained 28% of the Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVA) market and expected the credit crunch to lead to more consumers using its services.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Associated British Foods (ABF) 838.00p +8.13%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 175.30p +6.37%
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Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 765.00p +5.37%
British Land (BLND) 968.00p +5.16%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,146.00p +4.56%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 731.00p +3.18%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,760.00p -6.63%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,131.00p -5.20%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,204.00p -4.70%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,187.00p -4.58%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,603.00p -4.05%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,349.00p -4.05%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,460.00p +12.89%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 201.00p +9.39%
St James's Place (STJ) 248.75p +8.27%
CSR (CSR) 494.00p +8.04%
Signet Group (SIG) 65.25p +7.41%
Capital & Regional (CAL) 409.00p +7.28%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
eaga (EAGA) 130.00p -9.57%
Venture Production (VPC) 659.00p -7.77%
Northern Rock (NRK) 63.00p -7.35%
Petrofac Ld (PFC) 474.75p -6.82%
Dimension Data Holdings (DDT) 46.25p -5.61%
Britvic (BVIC) 303.50p -5.30%
