London close: Footsie tumbles through 5,900
Hefty losses on Wall Street sent London, already suffering concussion, onto the canvas Tuesday, leaving the leading index at its worst levels of the day as recession fears resurfaced.
Only four blue chips could boast gains at the end of a session that saw losses accelerate from mid-afternoon as a weak read on the US services sector rattled investors over the pond.
Real estate stocks were friendless after HSBC called January's property sector rally "a false dawn". The broker lowered Brixton, Land Securities and Segro to "underweight'' from "overweight,'' while British Land and Hammerson were dropped to "underweight'' from "neutral".
Housebuilders also remained out of favour, with Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Berkeley Group the worst affected.
Fund managers with US interests were punished, with Schroders and Old Mutual both showing notable losses. Banks fared no better. Alliance & Leicester, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland led the sector south as sub-prime fears refused to go away.
Insurer Aviva fell back after its Norwich Union unit announced a one-off, special bonus worth around £2.1bn, to be split on a 90/10 basis between policyholders and shareholders, with policyholders receiving a total of £2.1bn and shareholders £230m.
Fashion retailer Next was marked lower after Panmure Gordon took the unusual step of downgrading the stock from "buy" to "sell", missing out "neutral", citing tough conditions on the High Street.
BP finished with a small loss. The oil major had risen earlier after posting replacement cost profits of $2.97bn, down from $3.86bn, as refining losses totalled $1.34bn. For the full year profits dropped from $22bn to $20.85bn and on a replacement cost basis by 22%. The full year dividend rises by 16%.
Kazakhmys also relinquished gains. It signed an agreement with AES Corporation to buy the Ekibastuz coal-fired power plant and the Maikuben West coal mine in Kazakhstan.
Emerald Energy kept up its advance after being given approval for commercial development of the Khurbet East Field.
Expro climbed higher on news that it is to jointly market its proprietary AX-S rigless intervention technology together with Aker Oilfield Services' state of the art fleet of well intervention vessels.
Carpetright reported sales have turned down sharply in recent weeks. Group sales increased by 4.8% in the third quarter to end January, but like-for-like sales in the UK and Republic of Ireland fell by 4.0%. "The third quarter started strongly but there has subsequently been a slowdown," Lord Harris of Peckham, chairman and chief executive, said.
Regent Inns, owner of Walkabout sports bars and Jongleurs comedy clubs, saw first half like-for-like sales fall by 3.8%. The firm, which recently received a bid approach, added that January has seen a continuation of the trends, attributable to the slowdown in consumer confidence and the impact of the smoking ban in the winter months. Interim profits fell from £3.65m to £1.22m.
Sportswear retailer Sports Direct is to bolster its presence China through a strategic alliance with leading Chinese retailer ITAT Group.
Shares in Arm Holdings plunged after the chip designer missed fourth quarter forecasts and expressed caution over the outlook for the semiconductor industry in 2008.
CeNeS Pharmaceuticals posts a healthy rise after confirming it is in talks that may possibly lead to a bid for the company.
Positive results from a survey of its Salamanca 1 project has boosted Berkeley Resources. The survey confirmed and extended the potential to add additional uranium resources to the existing resource base of almost 17m lbs of U308.
Plethora Solutions, the developer of treatments for urological disorders, is bid up after publishing positive clinical data for its incontinence drug, PSD506.
Computer aided design software specialist Delcam surges ahead after revealing record monthly sales for December to cap a fourth quarter in which sales rose 20%.
Promotions group MKM is in the red, however, after announcing delays in the signing of new contracts and the loss of a major contract in Australia.
NWF, the diversified sales and distribution business, disappointed the market with interim results which revealed the company's margins coming under intense pressure.
Business class airline Silverjet, which recently had a price target of zero set for it by a broker, is heading south after announcing disappointing load factor figures for January. The load factor was up to 54% from December's 52.8%, but was below expectations.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Shire (SHP) 951.00p +0.74%
BP (BP.) 544.50p +0.46%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,735.00p +0.23%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 785.00p +0.13%
Kelda Group (KEL) 1,089.00p 0.00%
Resolution (RSL) 715.00p -0.07%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,794.00p -0.44%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 968.50p -0.72%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 562.00p -0.88%
Diageo (DGE) 1,019.00p -1.07%
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FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kingfisher (KGF) 142.00p -7.55%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 186.20p -7.48%
Next (NXT) 1,409.00p -7.42%
Persimmon (PSN) 732.00p -7.34%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 418.75p -7.10%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,064.00p -7.07%
Schroders (SDR) 1,026.00p -6.98%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 274.00p -6.48%
Liberty International (LII) 1,009.00p -6.40%
3i Group (III) 925.00p -5.90%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Northern Rock (NRK) 92.75p +5.40%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 111.25p +5.20%
UK Coal (UKC) 469.00p +4.22%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 264.25p +2.82%
Aberforth Smaller Companies Tst (ASL) 586.00p +2.54%
Expro International Group (EXR) 1,009.00p +2.49%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,046.00p +2.35%
Electra Private Equity (ELTA) 1,606.00p +1.90%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 109.75p +1.62%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 496.75p +1.53%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 95.50p -19.07%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 418.25p -9.27%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 26.00p -8.77%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 219.25p -7.97%
Michael Page International (MPI) 247.25p -7.74%
CSR (CSR) 489.75p -7.59%
Grainger (GRI) 374.50p -7.59%
William Hill (WMH) 389.00p -7.22%
GKN (GKN) 272.75p -7.15%
Signet Group (SIG) 63.50p -6.96%
