London close: Footsie ends in the red
London's top stocks finished deep in the red, never really recovering from the negative sentiment instigated by the sell-off in the Asian markets.
Miner's were the worst affected as copper prices in Shanghai fell for the first time in four days, with investors seeing recent gains - which had helped boost shares in the mining sector - as excessive. Anglo-American, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were all big fallers.
The exception was Xstrata, which mustered some gains. The Anglo-Swiss mining giant, which is facing a $50bn bid from Brazilian group Vale, reported a 28% increase in the resource estimate at its Collahuasi copper mine in Chile to 5.19bn tonnes at an average grade of 0.83% copper.
Oil stocks were down too, amid worries that a slowing world economy may slow demand for fuel. Crude prices slipping below $90 a barrel also hit the likes of Tullow Oil, BP and Shell.
US worries and ongoing interest rate concerns also pushed housing stocks lower. Building supplies company Wolseley, which has most of its business in the US and housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon are among the index's bottom 10.
Amongst the risers, Whitbread benefited on rumours that property tycoon Asif Aziz has an 8% stake in the leisure group.
ABN Amro has upgraded Enterprise Inns to 'buy' from 'hold' but cut its price target to 485p from 720p in a review of the UK leisure sector. JD Wetherspoon was lower after ABN Amro downgraded it to 'hold' from 'buy' and reduced its price target.
Carpetright is higher after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'hold'. Northern Foods is also posting tasty gains following Goldman Sachs upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' although the price target was left unchanged at 109p.
Metalrax has bought Post Glover LifeLink from Halma for $6, or £3m, in cash, in line with its acquisition strategy, the engineer said Monday
LogicaCMG's chief operating officer Jim McKenna will leave the software firm during the second half of 2008 to pursue other interests.
Among smaller companies, bar and restaurant group Food and Drink's current trading is marginally below expectation as it reported a fall in pre-tax profit for the year.
IT services group Phoenix's like-for-like revenues are up by 16% on this time last year with good sales momentum seen in all divisions.
Paper manufacturer James Cropper said profit for the full financial year will be "significantly" below current market expectations.
FTSE 100 - Risers
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,768.00p +2.14%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,794.00p +1.82%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,257.00p +1.70%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,585.00p +1.60%
ICAP (IAP) 665.00p +1.45%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 772.50p +1.25%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 282.00p +1.17%
Carnival Corporation (CCL) 2,101.00p +1.16%
BAE Systems (BA.) 473.25p +1.12%
Cable & Wireless (CW.) 156.00p +0.71%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 183.30p -5.22%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,465.00p -4.83%
Shire (SHP) 946.50p -4.39%
Persimmon (PSN) 790.50p -4.30%
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Wolseley (WOS) 700.00p -4.04%
Sage Group (SGE) 207.75p -3.82%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 627.50p -3.76%
Yell Group (YELL) 320.00p -3.54%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,116.00p -3.54%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,549.00p -3.13%
FTSE 250 - Risers
eaga (EAGA) 141.50p +10.55%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 162.50p +4.84%
Aggreko (AGK) 519.50p +4.74%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 96.50p +4.32%
Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 1,167.00p +4.20%
Game Group (GMG) 204.75p +4.20%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 389.00p +3.46%
Severfield-Rowen (SFR) 258.00p +3.20%
Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 205.00p +3.14%
Regus Group (RGU) 69.25p +2.97%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 314.25p -7.03%
Southern Cross Healthcare Group (SCHE) 347.75p -6.58%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 116.75p -6.22%
St James's Place (STJ) 263.00p -5.05%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,362.00p -4.95%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 523.00p -4.91%
Aveva Group (AVV) 922.50p -4.70%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,430.00p -4.46%
RPS Group (RPS) 258.50p -4.44%
Foseco (FOSE) 257.00p -4.28%
