News

With the exception of a handful of stocks, blue-chips are in full retreat following Wall Street's poor overnight performance. Increasing signs of a slow-down in consumer spending, as evidenced by weak trading at pub group Punch Taverns, has more than offset any feel good factor engendered by the weaker oil price.

Enterprise Inns leads the FTSE 100 lower after a gloomy statement from rival Punch Taverns. Punch has axed its final dividend to conserve cash. Plans to convert to a REIT have also been shelved on cost grounds. "The main priority for the use of cash is to support the repayment of the group's convertible bonds," Punch said. Fellow pub groups Mitchells & Butlers and JD Wetherspoon are also under the weather, as is hotel and pub restaurant operator Whitbread.

Oil groups are holding steady despite renewed weakness in the crude price and talk that it could go below $100 per barrel. Tullow is the best performer in the sector after better than expected test drilling results from its Ugandan wells, jointly owned and operated by Heritage Oil.

Meanwhile, airline companies British Airways and easyJet celebrate the slide in oil prices.

Cable & Wireless is in the red now despite being the best performer earlier after insurer Prudential agreed to take responsibility for just over £1bn of pension assets and 5,000 scheme members from the telecoms giant.

Shares in Vodafone fell after Credit Suisse lowered its rating on the mobile phone company to 'neutral' from 'outperform', citing concerns about the company's performance in Spain and competition from Apple's iPhone.

BG Group remains one of JP Morgan's top picks in the integrated oils sector despite the broker trimming its price target on the stock by 20p to 1,480p.

JP Morgan has raised its rating on the shopping centre owner Liberty International to 'neutral' from 'underweight' in a review of the European property sector.

The banking sector is weak, with investors underwhelmed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's attempts to offer assistance to the slumping housing market and hard pressed mortgage payers. Barclays is lower after being downgraded from "hold" to "sell" by the Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS estimates Barclays has a capital shortfall of between £4.9bn and £7.5bn.

Electricals retailer DSG's like-for-like sales tumbled 7% in the 16 weeks ended 23 August 2008. Total group sales rose 4% in sterling terms and fell 2% in local currency. The trading environment remains challenging across Europe with gross margins across the group down 0.75% year on year. "We remain very cautious about the consumer outlook," DSG said.

Communications technology group Spirent is sharply lower after UBS announced an accelerated book-build secondary placing of up to 75m million ordinary Spiutent shares.

Engineer Hamworthy has discovered accounting errors related to inventory valuation at its inert gas systems business, with an overstatement in inventories of £4.6m over a number of years. An adjustment relating to the year ended 31 March 2008 is anticipated at £1m with the majority of the remainder relating to financial years 2005 to 2007. "The board believes that this is an isolated error," the statement said.

Packaging group DS Smith says overall trading in the first quarter of financial year 2008/09 has been in line with management's expectations with the total operating result in line with this time last year.

James Bond gadgets group QinetiQ has been awarded a maritime facilities contract by the Ministry of Defence worth more than £150m over the next 15 years.

Speciality metal producer and recycler Metal-Tech crumpled today on news that the weaker dollar versus the Israeli Shekel will mean interim pre-tax profits falling "significantly" below expectations.

Falling property prices have plunged A&J Mucklow into a full year loss and it said the challenging market conditions mean a further drop in values is possible.

FTSE 100 - Risers
BP (BP.) 516.50p +0.98%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 932.00p +0.43%
BAE Systems (BA.) 485.00p +0.41%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 753.00p +0.33%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,436.00p +0.12%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,850.00p -0.70%
John Wood Group (WG.) 425.50p -0.70%
Amec (AMEC) 826.50p -0.72%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,804.00p -0.77%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 2,837.00p -1.12%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 266.00p -13.43%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 234.25p -6.21%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,098.00p -5.83%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 98.70p -5.73%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,121.00p -5.32%
Next (NXT) 1,073.00p -5.30%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 351.50p -5.00%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 770.00p -5.00%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 234.50p -4.87%
Old Mutual (OML) 96.90p -4.53%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,020.00p +6.31%
Premier Foods (PFD) 93.75p +5.93%
easyJet (EZJ) 392.00p +3.36%
Catlin Group (CGL) 340.75p +3.10%
Heritage Oil (HOIL) 221.00p +2.79%
Headlam Group (HEAD) 313.25p +2.62%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 187.00p +2.19%
Mecom Group (MEC) 23.50p +2.17%
Halma (HLMA) 204.25p +2.12%
Davis Service Group (DVSG) 341.75p +2.01%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Punch Taverns (PUB) 263.50p -16.81%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 73.00p -11.78%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 148.50p -9.17%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 280.25p -7.51%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 56.50p -7.00%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 254.75p -6.77%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 317.75p -6.54%
SIG (SHI) 538.50p -6.35%
SEGRO (SGRO) 411.50p -6.26%
Laird (LRD) 352.50p -6.00%