News

Equities are mixed but with a firmer bias after yesterday afternoon's strong rebound on Wall Street. The US market is set to open lower today, which has taken the shine off early gains in London.

Mining stocks are the main drag on Footsie performance, as concerns escalate about slackening demand should the global economy fall further into recession. Xstrata, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and ENRC are the weakest in the sector.

Kazakh mining firm Kazakhmys has halted negotiations about a possible merger with an unnamed third party, believed to be with Russian iron ore group Metalloinvest.

Oil services companies Wood Group and Petrofac are also out of favour, for much the same reason as the miners. Oil producer Royal Dutch Shell advances despite the slide in oil prices, however, after Goldman Sachs said it prefers it to rival BP.

Heavy fuel users such as cruise operator Carnival and British Airways notch up strong gains on the back of the slumping oil price.

Prudential and Legal and General have both surrendered early gains despite the pair insisting they do not need extra funding. Old Mutual also falls back after JP Morgan lowered its target price on the insurer to 90p from 130p.

Shares in electrical retailer Kesa Electricals moved higher after the company was moved to Goldman Sachs' 'conviction buy' list, but then fell into the red. The broker said it was upgrading its recommendation on the Comet owner in light of recent share price declines.

JP Morgan has cut its target price on the Holiday Inn chain owner Intercontinental Hotels to 900p from 1,000p in expectation that the recent plunge in financial markets will feed through to wider business and consumer sentiment.

Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl said despite the tough economic conditions, particularly in the UK and eurozone, revenue in the third quarter rose 15%.

Packaging supplier DS Smith is trading broadly in line with expectations, with lower demand and rising raw material costs inhibiting profitability as expected. Market demand in the second quarter of its financial year has been weaker and more volatile than in the first, the company said.

Car dealer Inchcape said it expects underlying results for 2008 to be below consensus and 2009 to be "significantly" below expectations. Group sales for the nine months were up 6.7% in sterling terms and in line with the same period last year in constant currency. Like for like group sales were down 1%.

Bingo hall to casino owner Rank saw revenues fall further over the past nine months though sales have been much better in recent weeks despite the tough economic background. "On a like-for-like basis, group revenue declined by 8% for the 41-week period to 12 October 2008. During the last six weeks, the group has delivered a much stronger relative performance, with like-for-like revenue up by 5%," it said.

Advertising giant WPP Group is to buy a 33% stake in South African field marketing agency Smollan Holdings.

UK Coal said overall results for the year will be "significantly" below previous expectations due to changes in the production outlook for the year, coupled with the lower market price for coal.

Builders merchant Travis Perkins is still in free-fall after yesterday's profit warning.

The strong euro helped boost revenue by 6% at IT services provider Computacenter during the third quarter, but revenue since then has been no better than the same time last year.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Carnival (CCL) 1,484.00p +8.16%
Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 819.00p +7.06%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,124.00p +6.74%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 154.00p +6.06%
Alliance Trust (ATST) 230.75p +5.85%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 68.60p +5.54%
British Airways (BAY) 123.90p +5.27%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 521.50p +5.09%
Centrica (CNA) 299.75p +4.90%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,293.00p +4.70%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Xstrata (XTA) 836.00p -8.53%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 268.25p -7.26%
Fresnillo (FRES) 158.00p -7.06%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 337.00p -6.84%
John Wood Group (WG.) 194.60p -6.67%
Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 365.50p -6.28%
Lonmin (LMI) 1,178.00p -5.76%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 599.50p -5.22%
Aviva (AV.) 334.75p -5.17%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 272.75p -5.13%