News

London continues to stagger along with just a handful of blue chips in positive territory and losses close to three figures as US futures point to another big drop on Wall Street.

British Energy is the biggest loser after it said the restart of its Hartlepool Reactor 1 is to be delayed following an inspection of its boiler closure units, with two other reactors shut down as a precaution.

Miners are also weighing heavily on negative comment from Citigroup, with Antofagasta, Kazakhmys, Vedanta Resources, Lonmin, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Anglo American all sharply lower.

Along with the negative sentiment in the US, UK banks have taken a pounding as a note from Credit Suisse warned investors to steer clear of the sector. Lloyds TSB is dropped to 'neutral' from 'outperform', Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland are reinitiated as 'neutral' and 'underperform' respectively, while HBOS stays as 'neutral', but with price target cut to 1,025p from 1,080p.

Among the mortgage lenders, all are rated 'underperform', with Alliance & Leicester's target down to 675p from 953p, Bradford & Bingley's dropped to 270p from 390p and Northern Rock's kept at 180p.

Meanwhile, electricals retailer DSG International fell again Monday after Sanford Bernstein lowered the shares to 'market perform' from 'outperform' in reaction to last week's interims.

Publishing house Pearson is posting good gains though after it reported a 6% increase in underlying sales during the first nine months of 2007, a 20% hike in operating profit and lifted guidance for its education business.

Office accommodation provider Workspace Group said the current market downturn is creating opportunities to buy properties that offer potential to release future value.

British publisher Huveaux said it has received approaches from a number of private equity groups and added that it expects underlying profit for the year to be £6m-£7m.

Property services group First Property said results for the financial year are likely to be 'significantly' ahead of current market expectations.

Asia-focused gold miner Oxus said the year to June has been one of the most "challenging" in its history as it swung into losses.

GamingKing's sales levels have been affected by the smoking ban and the gaming group now expects half-year losses to exceed that of the same period last year. Rank falls back in sympathy.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has decided to discontinue its investigation into mobile phone software group Adamind.

Press reports that investors circling the London Stock Exchange are mulling a deal that would secure the market's long-term future as a UK-listed entity has disappointed those expecting a full takeover, and the shares fall back as a result.

Elsewhere among second liners Autonomy is weaker ahead of third quarter results tomorrow.