News

London's top stocks have started deep in the red with financials and miners, the index heavyweights, amongst the biggest fallers.

Bank HSBC is currently topping the losers with other financials Aviva, Prudential and HBOS amongst the top ten fallers.

Miners Vedanta Resources, Eurasian Natural Resources, Kazakhmys and Lonmin are also on the fallers list.

National Express was down despite saying it remains on track for a strong year after seeing good revenue growth in its rail and bus divisions. Like-for-like rail revenues in the year to date rose by 9% from the same period last year, with the east coast line turnover climbing 11% and National Express East Anglia rising 6%.

Business software group Axon said although the macroeconomic environment continues to deteriorate, trading has been encouraging and outlook for the full year is in line with expectations. The business has continued to perform well, with chargeability remaining high, it said.

Insurance group Just Retirement said sales for the second quarter are likely to reduce as it posted a 3.8% drop in overall first quarter sales The group said the annuity market continues to be affected by a large number of potential annuitants deferring taking their benefits in the light of the adverse economic news flow. Group sales in the first quarter were £183.5m, down from £190.8m

Metals trader Wogen said the recent troubles in the global economy may impact its results for the year but added that it continues to trade profitably for the second half. "The recent uncertainties in the global economy have had an impact on the markets in which the company trades and may consequently have an effect on our reported results for the year," said the group.

Property recruitment specialist Prime People said it anticipates operating profit will be marginally less than the comparable period last year. Overall net fee income in the first half to 30 September 2008 was £6.7m compared to £7.1m for the same period last year.

Mining royalty group Anglo Pacific said it remained well positioned to secure new royalties but reported a fall in the value of its investments. The firm has a healthy liquidity level and continuing strong cashflow despite recent banking and market problems that have made the raising of mining finance from conventional lenders difficult, it said.

Gene therapy group Oxford Biomedica said it is moving into Phase III trials of its cancer vaccine TroVax after cross-trial analysis.

Grim market conditions and limited IPO activity resulted in stockbroker Daniel Stewart slumping into losses for the first half.