London close: Gains trimmed at the close
London closed mixed but with a slightly firmer bias, with miners, housebuilders and banks among the best performers.
Hotel firm Intercontinental was the day's star blue-chip, despite reporting a full year profits slip. The group said it was well placed to deal with the uncertain economic outlook.
Barclays spearheaded the banking sector's advance after declaring results this morning which included a 10% hike in the dividend. The market expressed relief at the relatively small increase in write-downs. Net write-downs for the year totalled £1.64bn, up from the £1.3bn figure the bank announced in November.
Alliance & Leicester displayed nervousness ahead of tomorrow's results, however.
Mining stocks moved up in line with firmer commodity prices, with Antofagasta the pick of the sector. Nickel and platinum miner Braemore Resources closed sharply higher after the successful completion of the first quarter of commercial production for the Mintek Smelter in Johannesburg.
Cadbury Schweppes's share price melted after the confectionery giant reported a fall in pre-tax profits for 2007, and delivered a slap in the face for shareholders hoping for a big pay-out when the company demerges its drinks division. Pre-tax profit for the year fell to £670m compared to £738m last time. Revenue rose by 7% to £7.97bn.
Heavyweight FTSE 100 constituent Vodafone was lower after Goldman Sachs lowered its price target to 207p. Reckitt Benckiser was another flattened by broker comment. Merrill Lynch changed its stance on the stock to "neutral" from "buy".
Brewer Scottish & Newcastle anticipates improvement in its main western European markets in 2008 after the poor weather across its markets in 2007 as it announced flat profits for the year.
Moving down to the FTSE 250, Morgan Crucible was among the best performers after the engineer raised dividends by 50% as profits for the year surged by 47.8% as all its three divisions performed well.
Construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall's surged ahead after hiking its dividend by 36% to 38p a share.
No-frills airline easyJet soared higher after it said Easter bookings look encouraging. The airline continues to expect its full year pretax profit to increase by around 20%.
Chemicals group Croda also gained after posting a 26.7% jump in pre-tax profit for the full year and increased its synergy target for Uniqema.
Balfour Beatty has named finance director Anthony Rabin as its new deputy chief executive, while deputy finance director Duncan Magrath will succeed Rabin as finance director.
Domino's Pizza recorded a 33% rise in pre-tax profits in 2007 and said sales have been strong in the opening period of this year, helped by robust growth in internet delivery orders.
Oil and gas group Frontera Resources hit the skids after encountering unexpectedly difficult drilling conditions at its basin Edge Play unit in Georgia. In contrast, PetroNeft Resources rose after announcing a significant increase in reserves on its Licence 61 project in Russia.
Supermarket packaging group Polymer Logistics disappointed the market with a trading update in which it said 2007 results will be below market expectations.
Phosphagenics headed higher after announcing the initiation of a human clinical trial for its lead dermatological product, retinoic acid, a form of vitamin A.
Oxus Gold was marked lower after it agreed to pay Eurogold and its Bermuda subsidiary A$7.95m to settle proceedings started by Eurogold back in August 2006. Eurogold shares rose sharply on the announcement.
IT group Netstore said it has received certain early-stage approaches from third parties and said historical accounting errors will result in previous financial year's profits being reduced.
Cancer diagnostic and biopharmaceutical technologies group Genetix fell back on the launch of new range of reagents which the CEO said "will provide a small incremental increase in revenues."
FTSE 100 - Risers
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 828.00p +7.32%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 826.00p +5.22%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 180.10p +4.16%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 272.00p +3.92%
Kingfisher (KGF) 136.70p +3.88%
Barclays (BARC) 477.00p +3.70%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,448.00p +3.65%
HBOS (HBOS) 659.00p +3.13%
Persimmon (PSN) 740.00p +3.06%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,584.00p +2.70%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
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London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,564.00p -6.40%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 579.50p -5.39%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 528.00p -3.21%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 672.00p -2.68%
Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,775.00p -2.60%
Diageo (DGE) 1,052.00p -2.50%
Schroders NV (SDRC) 863.00p -2.43%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 169.90p -2.24%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,588.00p -1.98%
Schroders (SDR) 957.50p -1.69%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 1,160.00p +14.62%
Morgan Crucible (MGCR) 213.00p +8.40%
Cookson Group (CKSN) 579.00p +6.04%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 794.00p +5.87%
Savills (SVS) 330.25p +5.85%
easyJet (EZJ) 435.75p +5.64%
Amlin (AML) 271.25p +5.44%
888 Holdings (888) 162.00p +5.02%
Victrex (VCT) 739.50p +4.82%
CSR (CSR) 434.50p +4.70%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 240.00p -4.19%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,031.00p -2.55%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 512.00p -2.38%
UK Coal (UKC) 419.25p -1.99%
Genus (GNS) 643.50p -1.76%
Candover Investments (CDI) 2,202.00p -1.56%
Halma (HLMA) 212.00p -1.51%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,387.00p -1.49%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 488.00p -1.36%
Brixton (BXTN) 329.75p -1.35%
