London close: Banks bash Footsie
London ended the weak on a dull note with banks leading the way down .
Yellow Pages group Yell was in the dog-house again today, falling for the third day in a row. Yesterday its US rival, R H Donnelley, cut its earnings forecast and cancelled plans for a dividend. Bear Stearns responded by cutting its rating on Yell to "peer perform" from "outperform".
Banks featured prominently among the day's big losers. Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays tumbled following broker downgrades from Morgan Stanley.
Mortgage lender HBOS ended a lacklustre week on a dull note following gloomy house price data. Figures from the Nationwide Building Society revealed that prices fell 0.5% from January, taking annual growth down to 2.7%, the lowest since November 2005.
Sector peer Bradford & Bingley, however, shot up on speculation that a rival will take advantage of the stock's current weakness (the share price has halved over the last year) to launch a bid.
Online property listings group Rightmove shrugged off any worries about a housing slump to post a 77% hike in full year underlying profit before tax, as expected. Shares turned lower, however, after broker WH Ireland said it reckons closures in estate agent branches will hit Rightmoves listings revenues.
Shares in Capita fell despite a 19% rise in underlying pre-tax profit in 2007, with the support services firm remaining confident amid strong demand for outsourcing and good trading conditions across the group.
United Utilities bosses said they remain confident of delivering the company's regulatory outputs and efficiency targets over the 2005-10 regulatory review period.
Diageo was in retreat after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "neutral" in the wake of recent share price gains.
On the bright side Schroders was wanted after Morgan Stanley raised its rating to "equal weight" from "underweight". Rentokil Initial, meanwhile, recovered some of the heavy losses incurred yesterday after its profits warning, but the bears still had their claws into Trinity Mirror after it warned on advertising revenues yesterday.
Advertising group WPP saw reported revenue rise 4.7% in 2007 to £6.19bn, in line with expectations, and said 2008 should be a better year than last year.
Among the FTSE 250, Expro International was the top performer. The oil drilling services provider confirmed it has received a "very preliminary" proposal which may or may not lead to an offer for the company.
Radio group GCap Media rejected an improved offer from investment group Global Radio set at 202p per share as it "significantly" undervalues the business.
Rank surrendered early gains. The fallen leisure giant said that its bingo halls and casino have stabilised, though it still expects 2008 to be a challenging year. The group is to transfer its pension plan to Rothesay Life, as a result of which it will no longer be required to make remaining scheduled contributions totalling £30.8m.
Full year revenues at exhibitions and publishing group United Business Media came in better than forecast, with the firm "on track" for 2008.
Accident management group Helphire posted a 7% rise in profits but shares slumped as traders feel the group will be hard pressed to meet full-year expectations. Increasing debt was also a concern, as debtor days worsened to 248 from 213 last year.
Close Brothers said that following a number of approaches and detailed discussions with several parties it is no longer in discussions in relation to an offer for the investment bank or any of its divisions.
Hunting got a lift from Seymour Pierce raising its price target to 850p from 820p after the energy services group's results yesterday.
Building maintenance group Connaught said it has continued its high level of contract wins, with a record first half order intake of £455m compared to £350m last time. Trading in the six months to end February has been in line with expectations, the social housing maintenance firm added.
Things have not been so good for housing regeneration specialists MJ Gleeson which said its business faces "extremely challenging" market conditions, especially on Merseyside and the North West of England where potential customers have found it hard to secure mortgages.
Sub-prime money lender Cattles added to yesterday's losses; Dresdner Kleinwort cut its rating to "hold" from "add" and reduced its price target to 355p from 385p after analysing the results Cattles released yesterday.
The curse of Lara Croft - Tomb Raider struck SCi Entertainment. The computer games developer, which acquired ownership of the Tomb Raider franchise when it took over Eidos, is to axe 25% of its staff and raise between £45m and £55m through an equity issue to stave off collapse as big write-offs meant a huge interim loss.
Lupus Capital, the investment vehicle headed by former Tomkins chief executive Greg Hutchings, hopped higher after saying 2007 results will be in line with expectations.
European property investment and development company International Real Estate improved sharply after accompany decent results with an 11% hike in the dividend.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 83.40p +3.60%
Resolution (RSL) 690.00p +3.06%
Schroders (SDR) 958.50p +1.91%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,717.00p +1.34%
Amec (AMEC) 775.00p +1.31%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 297.50p +1.19%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 162.70p +0.81%
G4S (GFS) 218.75p +0.46%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 993.50p +0.35%
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Schroders NV (SDRC) 850.00p +0.29%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Yell Group (YELL) 219.25p -9.59%
Sage Group (SGE) 197.50p -5.62%
ICAP (IAP) 631.50p -4.97%
HBOS (HBOS) 603.50p -4.96%
Barclays (BARC) 477.25p -4.65%
FirstGroup (FGP) 579.00p -4.38%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 771.50p -4.28%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 385.00p -4.23%
Capita Group (CPI) 656.00p -3.88%
3i Group (III) 818.00p -3.82%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Expro International Group (EXR) 1,259.00p +35.89%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 225.00p +8.56%
Hunting (HTG) 775.00p +6.75%
FKI (FKI) 73.25p +6.16%
Capital & Regional (CAL) 513.50p +3.84%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,332.00p +3.66%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 332.00p +3.27%
Telecity Group (TCY) 238.00p +3.03%
Venture Production (VPC) 720.00p +2.93%
Weir Group (WEIR) 775.00p +2.85%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Helphire Group (HHR) 172.00p -40.79%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 659.00p -12.13%
888 Holdings (888) 140.00p -9.68%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 363.00p -7.75%
Aveva Group (AVV) 987.00p -7.06%
Cattles (CTT) 234.00p -6.68%
Investec (INVP) 370.00p -6.39%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 358.75p -6.09%
Johnston Press (JPR) 193.00p -5.97%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 134.50p -5.94%
