News

London's top stocks have ended the day unchanged as earlier good gains were retraced while the US starting moderately lower also had a negative impact on sentiment.

Heavy profit taking saw Carphone Warehouse lead the fallers, while supermarket firms Tesco and Sainsbury paced earlier losses.

But reports that Royal Bank of Scotland has scotched rumours a deeply discounted rights issue is imminent gave its shares a boost. Banks were higher across the board, with Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds TSB in the blue.

The much rumoured move by Punch for Mitchells & Butlers is no longer just a rumour. Punch has put forward a merger plan to Mitchells that would see each firm's shareholders own 50% of the merged company. In addition, M&B shareholders would receive a cash payment of £175m.

Miners were amongst the best performers but narrowed gains by close. Anglo American was higher after announcing a strategic relationship with China Development Bank to identify and develop a pipeline of natural resources projects.

Vedanta and Antofagasta showed healthy gains but the smaller Randgold was off the pace after a mixed results statement with annual profits down. Xstrata and Rio Tinto were also weaker, as bid frenzy dies down, while Kazakhmys also retraced earlier gains.

Persistent rumours of an imminent bid from JC Flowers provided a lift for Friends Provident. Similarly, ITV is firmer on rumours it is being stalked by private equity groups now that BSkyB has been ordered to reduce its large strategic stake.

Business software group Sage reports trading for the three months to December was consistent with management expectations. The performance of its UK business continued to be good.

No-frills airline Ryanair's underlying net profits fell 27% to €35m in the third quarter. It also warned that high oil prices, an economic slowdown in the UK and weak sterling could mean a 50% profit drop next year. In the last three months, traffic grew by 21% to 12.4m, but yields fell by 4%, as revenues rose by 16% to €569m. Rival Easyjet is down in sympathy.

BT moved lower despite JP Morgan upgrading the telecoms giant to 'neutral' from 'underweight', saying it expects BT to correct some of its recent underperformance.

Northern Rock was lively as the deadline for bids for the troubled bank closes today. Olivant released a statement late in the day saying that it had pulled out of the race to buy the bank.

Diamond miner Gem Diamonds shone after sparkling results. It reported an 81% hike in total sales from its Letseng mine in Lesotho to $152m during the year ended 31 December 2007.

Irish construction company Siteserv climbed higher after acquiring UK contractor Deborah Services.

Oil firm Coastal Energy advanced after finding gas deposits at its Dong Mun-3 drill site. In contrast, Indago Petroleum plummeted on news of a high pressure salt water flow into its Al Jariya-1 well near the border of Abu Dhabi.

Cleaning franchise specialist Myhome International doubled profits last year but expects 2008's financial performance to be lower than initially expected.

Michelmersh Brick was in the red after revealing industry demand for brick products has reduced due to wet weather conditions and a slowdown in the house building market.

Boat electronics specialist Raymarine floats higher after announcing it has bought its Italian distributor Deck Marine for up to €25m.

Semiconductor firm Wolfson Microelectronics hiked fourth quarter revenue by 36% despite challenging market conditions during the first half of 2007 and expects revenues in the current quarter to rise between 10% and 20%.

Online gaming service provider Cyberview said the impact of not securing one-off licensing fees in 2007 will mean that results for the year ending December 2007 will be below expectations.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 405.50p +4.31%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 201.25p +4.27%
Friends Provident (FP.) 140.70p +3.46%
Next (NXT) 1,522.00p +3.19%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,019.00p +3.01%
Sage Group (SGE) 229.25p +2.92%
ITV (ITV) 78.60p +2.75%
Amec (AMEC) 732.50p +2.52%
3i Group (III) 983.00p +2.29%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 305.00p +2.01%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 314.75p -7.29%
Man Group (EMG) 562.50p -3.52%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,895.00p -2.70%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 639.00p -2.52%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 975.50p -2.40%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 386.00p -2.40%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,676.00p -2.39%
Pearson (PSON) 678.50p -2.16%
Tesco (TSCO) 408.75p -1.92%
British Airways (BAY) 312.00p -1.89%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 741.00p +11.09%
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 102.50p +7.61%
Gem Diamonds (GEMD) 965.00p +7.46%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 179.50p +5.59%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,645.00p +5.25%
Rotork (ROR) 881.50p +4.94%
Shanks Group (SKS) 223.75p +4.92%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 444.50p +4.90%
Severfield-Rowen (SFR) 275.50p +4.75%
Speedy Hire (SDY) 782.50p +4.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,300.00p -6.88%
Punch Taverns (PUB) 667.50p -6.45%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 257.00p -4.81%
Signet Group (SIG) 68.25p -3.87%
Bodycote International (BOY) 183.25p -3.30%
Premier Foods (PFD) 127.25p -3.23%
easyJet (EZJ) 453.00p -2.95%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 83.25p -2.92%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 139.25p -2.79%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 110.25p -2.65%