News

Leading shares are slowly clawing back losses sustained in the first hour of trading, but no assistance can be expected from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones is expected to open around 165 points lower in the wake of Barrack Obama's victory in the Presidential election.

Resource stocks remain in the dog-house. Oil services groups Wood Group, Petrofac and Amec see their recent good run come to an abrupt end, while miners Kazakhmys, Vedanta, Lonmin and Xstrata are feeling the pain on weaker copper prices.

Copper miner Antofagasta defies the trend, however, rising after a clutch of brokers raised their price targets for the stock following yesterday's production update.

High street fashion giant Next has edged ahead after it maintained guidance for the current year. Like-for-like sales, down 4.4% at Next Retail in the 14 weeks to 1 November, are expected to continue to fall in 2009 but "not necessarily at any worse rate than the current year". Analysts said today's statement was better than expected.

Bus and train operator FirstGroup is the best performing blue-chip after well-received interim results. Stripping out various charges and non-recurring items, pre-tax profit in the six months to 30 September rose to £107.1m from £74.5m the year before. Sector peer Stagecoach gets a tow from Firstgroup and moves higher.

Shopping centre developer Liberty International saw an almost 30% decline in net assets per share in the year to end-September as voids climbed. Losses of £1,088m on the revaluation and sale of investment and development property tipped the company into deficit at the pre-tax level. Pre-tax loss was £1,059m, versus a profit of £442m a year before.

Aerospace and defence firm Cobham said it has experienced strong organic growth in the first nine months of 2008, consistent with its expectations.

Broadcaster ITV said given the uncertain economic outlook, trading conditions across the group are likely to remain challenging in 2009. Group revenues for the nine months to September fell to £1,471m from £1,484m in the same period last year.

Higher funding costs and rising bad debts have prompted Irish bank Allied Irish to cut its EPS target this year to around 120c.

Oil explorer Soco International said its balance sheet continues to strengthen thanks to the revenues now being earned from oil and gas sales from two of its assets.

Forestry management group Fountains has confirmed it has received more than one possible bid approach.

Ideal Shopping said current market conditions have had a negative impact on sales and it anticipates a small trading loss for the year to December.

Housebuilder Redrow is on course to meet its debt objectives for the financial year despite housing market activity staying "at a low level with only a modest seasonal upturn experienced in September and October". The shares retreated after the company reported that the low levels of activity and resultant competitive conditions mean that pricing remains under significant pressure.

Interserve, which provides specialist cleaning services, said activity in the UK construction market remains solid, underpinned by long-term structural projects for schools, hospitals and prisons and for private-sector framework programmes. The company's share rose after it said it is trading in line with expectations.

FTSE 100 - Risers
FirstGroup (FGP) 481.50p +8.14%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 197.00p +6.95%
Barclays (BARC) 194.70p +4.73%
Next (NXT) 1,170.00p +4.00%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 67.80p +3.99%
Prudential (PRU) 407.50p +3.69%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 426.75p +2.52%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 242.25p +1.57%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,004.00p +1.36%
Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 972.50p +1.14%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
John Wood Group (WG.) 254.00p -9.93%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 909.50p -9.00%
Cobham (COB) 190.30p -7.40%
Lonmin (LMI) 1,180.00p -7.31%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 380.50p -6.74%
Amec (AMEC) 552.00p -6.52%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,231.00p -5.60%
Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 421.00p -5.39%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 376.00p -5.35%
Schroders NV (SDRC) 711.50p -5.13%