News

Miners and financials are dragging Footsie lower in early dealings after shares in Asia and the US tumbled overnight.

London Stock Exchange dropped despite saying that it has delivered 'good' first half results as pre-tax profits jumped 30% thanks to a hike in revenue. Profit before tax for the period was £127m from £97.8m in the same period last year on revenue that jumped 70% to £345.5m.

BT is this morning's strongest riser after the group announced the loss of 10,000 jobs alongside an 11% fall in second quarter profit, slightly better than forecast.

Around 10,000 jobs will go by the end of the current financial year as part of ongoing efficiency programmes, said the group. The cull will mostly impact indirect labour, including agency, contractors, subcontractors and offshore workers.

Reed Elsevier also gained after the publisher reaffirmed that it is on track to deliver on its full-year goals of good revenue growth, margin improvement and strong growth in adjusted earnings per share.

Brewer SABMiller warned that cost pressures and the strength of the US dollar are expected to adversely affect results as it reported a 5% rise in first-half pre-tax profit. "The deterioration in global economic conditions is causing weakening consumer demand in many of our markets," said the group.

Property search website Rightmove continues to have confidence in meeting its expectations for the current year and said its business is proving more robust than other forms of property advertising in this challenging environment.

Bookmaker Ladbrokes upped profit for the four months ended 31 October, excluding Telephone High Rollers, by 10% and brushed off a string of poor football and horse race results at the end of the period.

Irish peer Paddy Power is still on course to report operating profit for 2008 of about €75m, in line with lowered estimates published in August, assuming a "normal run" of sporting results over the rest of the year.

Support services firm Serco said it is on track to deliver on expectations for 2008 and is confident of delivering double-digit revenue growth for the foreseeable future. "We continue to expect, through management of our contract portfolio, our efficiency programmes and selective bidding for higher value contracts, an increase in our Adjusted PBT margin for the current business of 30 basis points in each of 2008 and 2009," it added.

Engineering specialist Keller expects to report "record results" for the current year as a whole, around the top end of market expectations. Trading from July to November has remained strong, said the group, with continued organic growth, particularly in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Australia.

Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror said it is cautious about its prospects for the remainder of 2008 and for 2009 as trading conditions continued to deteriorate since the half year.

Aircraft services company BBA anticipates performance in the second half will be broadly similar to the first half and in line with its expectations.

In economic news, Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is now officially in a recession after reporting two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Official figures showed that Germany's seasonally and calendar adjusted gross domestic product shrank 0.5% in the third quarter, having already contracted by 0.4% in the second quarter.

FTSE 100 - Risers
BT Group (BT.A) 126.30p +12.27%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 501.00p +2.45%
Old Mutual (OML) 50.60p +2.22%
TUI Travel (TT.) 189.60p +1.55%
Friends Provident (FP.) 78.10p +1.43%
British Airways (BAY) 145.00p +1.33%
Thomson Reuters (TRIL) 1,140.00p +1.33%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 106.90p -9.94%
ICAP (IAP) 258.75p -9.13%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 531.00p -8.37%
HBOS (HBOS) 89.70p -7.33%
Man Group (EMG) 177.30p -6.68%
Compass Group (CPG) 252.50p -6.48%
Lonmin (LMI) 959.00p -4.96%

FTSE 250 - Risers
ITV (ITV) 32.50p +6.56%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 53.50p +4.90%
UK Coal (UKC) 76.25p +4.81%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 108.50p +3.83%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 30.25p +3.42%
Melrose Resources (MRS) 222.00p +3.26%
Keller Group (KLR) 486.00p +3.13%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Mecom Group (MEC) 1.91p -8.61%
Cattles (CTT) 42.00p -7.69%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 42.75p -7.07%
Rightmove (RMV) 172.00p -7.03%
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 23.00p -6.12%
Aricom (ORE) 9.40p -6.00%
DS Smith (SMDS) 57.25p -4.98%