London close: Footsie hit by weak results
London's blue chips closed in the doldrums after some disappointing results and big losses on Wall Street reminded investors of the problems the market faces.
Pest control firm Rentokil Initial lost almost a quarter of its value after it saw full year profits slump 14.1%. It warned that poor performance from its City Link delivery business will lead to lower adjusted profit in 2008.
Full year profit at Royal Bank of Scotland increased by 9%, in line with expectations, although write-downs of £1.6bn were higher than the £1.2bn reported last December as the impact of the credit crunch becomes clearer.
The UK's second largest bank reported an underlying operating profit for 2007, excluding the ABN Amro acquisition, of £10.28bn, up from £9.41bn a year earlier.
Elsewhere in the banking sector, HBOS is still being punished after lacklustre results yesterday, which prompted Citigroup to change its stance on the stock to "sell" from "hold". Meanwhile Alliance & Leicester is also on the slide as bid hopes fade.
Xstrata is also sharply lower after the FT reported last night that Vale's putative $85bn takeover of the miner was on the brink of collapse. Lonmin, Rio Tinto and Kazakhmys are also among the main fallers.
But shareholders raised a glass to Whitbread after it posted a 5.7% rise in like-for-like sales and said it will combine its hotels and restaurants to save £25m per year in 2009/10. The leisure group also plans to outsource its logistics operation and said negotiations with an identified supplier are underway.
Whitbread's sector peer Enterprise Inns is also in good spirits after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to "overweight" from "equal weight" on hopes that it will complete its long anticipated transformation into a real estate investment trust.
Aviva is another riser after the insurer reported a better than expected 1% increase in full year operating profit on a European Embedded Value basis to £3.29bn despite exceptional losses caused by last summer's floods.
Housebuilders gave back yesterday's gains after Redrow reported a drop in half year profits and said the housing market remained challenging. Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Kier Group fell back.
British American Tobacco saw profits rise for the full year and said it would buy Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni for £2bn.
TV broadcaster ITV has said executive chairman Michael Grade has agreed to stay in his post until the end of 2010, one year longer than his original three-year term. Grade will be joined at the company by a new director of television, Peter Fincham. He left the BBC last year after a documentary wrongly implied that the queen had stormed out of a photo shoot.
Bus and rail operator National Express travelled higher Thursday after it reported a 13% hike in full year profit, a little better than market expectations
Bookmaker Ladbrokes has bumped up full year pre-tax profit by almost 45%, driven by a strong performance from the firm's telephone betting business.
Paper group Mondi saw profits for the year surge by 71% as it posted better margins due to improved efficiencies across the business and increased prices.
Yellow Pages publisher Yell slumped as US rival RH Donnelley reduced its guidance for 2008 citing weaker economic conditions.
IT communications group Spirent saw profits surge 124% despite revenues slipping as completed its restructuring programme and exceeded its initial cost saving targets.
Strong contributions from its Aerospace and Off-Highway divisions boosted engineering firm GKN in 2007, and the outlook for 2008 remains positive.
Wireless solutions provider CSR is sharply lower after saying first-half revenues will see little or no growth, as customers run down inventory levels.
Filtrona takes a battering after the speciality plastics and fibre supplier saw sales and pre-tax profits decline in the wake of its restructuring of the cigarette filters division.
Sub-prime money lender Cattles is weaker, despite full year's results containing no frightening surprises. Pre-tax profit leapt 24.9%, as expected, underpinned by strong income growth of 32.7%.
BBA Aviation dips after it said it has seen softer fuel volumes in Signature North America than in the same period in 2007, although all of its other businesses are performing in line with expectations.
Trinity Mirror slips as the newspaper group suffered a drop in adjusted profit and revenue and warned that advertising revenues are expected to fall by around 3% for January and February.
Electronic equipment maker Feedback returned to profit at the interim stage, recording pre-tax profits of £0.68m compared with a restated loss of £0.29m.
Software group Macro 4 released disappointing results which, in the words of its CEO "reflect the currently difficult and competitive economic environment". The group said it will be targeting high-growth niche markets henceforth.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Whitbread (WTB) 1,312.00p +7.01%
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Aviva (AV.) 616.00p +0.98%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 428.25p +0.82%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 840.00p +0.78%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,208.00p +0.41%
Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,785.00p +0.25%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 80.50p -23.33%
Yell Group (YELL) 242.50p -11.17%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,384.00p -5.53%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 806.00p -4.90%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 565.00p -4.88%
Old Mutual (OML) 126.10p -4.61%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Drax Group (DRX) 579.50p +7.02%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 59.25p +6.76%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 393.50p +4.58%
Talvivaara Mining (TALV) 361.00p +3.88%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 135.75p +3.04%
National Express Group (NEX) 1,156.00p +2.94%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
CSR (CSR) 324.25p -23.88%
Cattles (CTT) 250.75p -11.71%
Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 191.50p -11.55%
Henderson Group (HGI) 105.50p -9.83%
Helphire Group (HHR) 290.50p -8.72%
Rank Group (RNK) 91.00p -7.85%
