London close: Wall Street fall stymies rally
An attempted rally by London was quickly squashed by Wall Street's weak opening, with miners and housebuilders the day's major casualties.
Increasing prospects of a US recession, which will hit demand for metals, had Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta, Vedanta Resource and Rio Tinto featuring prominently among the major fallers on the Footsie, with Anglo American not far behind.
Bovis Homes's share price was in need of repair after the housebuilder said it has seen a 20% reduction in reservations this year and warned that volumes could fall sharply unless there are big cuts in interest rates.
Taylor Wimpey - almost certain to lose its Footsie status at tomorrow's constituent reshuffle - and Persimmon declined in sympathy with Bovis.
Caterer Compass was looking a bit stale after Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares to "sell" from "neutral" on fears over increased food costs. The price target is chopped to 300p from 350p.
Friends Provident was firmer on renewed bid speculation, with private equity group JC Flowers the favourite to make a tilt at the life assurance company.
Defensive favourites British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco were in demand, the latter after disposing of its 49.95% shareholding in Spanish airport duty free retailer Aldeasa to Autogrill for an enterprise value of €355m.
Banks also enjoyed some support now that the results season is behind them. HSBC and Alliance & Leicsester were the picks of the sector.
Oil stocks tracked the oil price higher, led by BP.
Meanwhile Morrison (Wm) pushed higher ahead of results this week in a buoyant supermarket sector that also saw Tesco edge higher.
Marks & Spencer fell back after the company announced a major boardroom shake-up that will see chief executive Stuart Rose become executive chairman.
Data centre operator Telecity halved losses for the year as it raised revenue by 42.1% and said it has seen strong demand continue in 2008. The figures disappointed Citigroup, which cut its price target from 280p to 250p.
Property developer Brixton saw adjusted NAV rise 2.1% but profits for the year fell 71.6%. The company warned that it was not immune from the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the credit markets.
Intertek reported a 15.8% rise in full year pre-tax profit and said it is well placed to withstand a global economic slowdown. Pre-tax profit rose to £105.8m in the year ended 31 December from £91.4m last time on revenue up 16.7% to £775.4m. Altium Securities took the opportunity to upgrade its profit forecasts and reiterated its "buy" recommendation while Seymour Pierce upgraded Intertek to "buy" from "outperform".
Oil & gas infrastructure engineer Petrofac has comfortably beaten its own estimates for net profits in 2007, adding that demand this year and further out remains very healthy.
Tool hire firm Speedy Hire has named Justin Read as new financial director with effect from 1 April to replace Neil O'Brien, who will be leaving the group after a handover period.
Brit Insurance posted record profits last year and unveiled a special dividend of 7.5p as bumper investment returns offset a lower underwriting contribution.
Vitro diagnostics Axis-Shield saw pre-tax profits for the year came in flat for the year due to higher selling, marketing and distribution costs.
Electrical cable, plug and connectors maker Volex has warned it made a loss in the second half of last year with prospects for 2008 also very uncertain.
Steam valve and pump maker Spirax-Sarco shrugged off uncertain markets and a weak dollar to boost full year profits by over 10% and predict more of the same this year.
Morgan Crucible was marked lower after Merrill Lynch cut its rating from "buy" to "neutral", citing receding takeover prospects. However, IMI climbed higher on speculation, fuelled by a week-end report in the Financial Times, that US giant Honeywell is considering a bid.
FKI benefited from week-end press reports that Blackstone, the US private equity company which last year walked away from take¬over talks, has hired bankers to examine making a counter-bid for the engineering group.
Irish food group IAWS posted a 40% jump in half year pre-tax profit and said it expects continued growth as a result of strong consumer demand.
Shares in TMN Group jumped after the online marketing specialist confirmed that it has received a preliminary approach that may or may not lead to an offer being made.
FTSE 100 - Risers
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,875.00p +2.85%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 839.50p +2.50%
Reuters Group (RTR) 601.50p +1.86%
British Energy Group (BGY) 577.00p +1.76%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,381.00p +1.58%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 769.50p +1.45%
Tesco (TSCO) 410.50p +1.17%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 555.00p +1.09%
BP (BP.) 534.00p +1.04%
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WPP Group (WPP) 586.50p +1.03%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 728.00p -7.44%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,551.00p -6.73%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 161.50p -6.49%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,258.00p -6.01%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,121.00p -5.98%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,497.00p -5.85%
Yell Group (YELL) 184.50p -5.38%
Schroders NV (SDRC) 770.50p -4.88%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 240.00p -4.86%
Schroders (SDR) 861.50p -4.65%
FTSE 250 - Risers
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 93.00p +7.51%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 931.50p +3.96%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 60.25p +3.88%
Helphire Group (HHR) 190.00p +3.12%
Brixton (BXTN) 330.00p +3.12%
Hunting (HTG) 827.50p +3.05%
IMI (IMI) 440.00p +3.04%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 125.00p +2.46%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 266.00p +2.31%
Johnston Press (JPR) 159.25p +2.25%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 506.00p -12.38%
Telecity Group (TCY) 212.00p -12.03%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 690.00p -9.21%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 66.25p -7.34%
Imperial Energy Corporation (IEC) 1,267.00p -7.04%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 950.50p -6.90%
Petrofac Ld (PFC) 527.50p -6.80%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,505.00p -6.70%
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 127.00p -6.62%
Savills (SVS) 329.00p -6.60%
