London Market Close Report

London close: Footsie ends winning streak

Footsie looked set to continue its 11-day winning streak but soon started a steady downward slide that saw it close sharply in the red.

Software giant Sage led Footsie higher in early dealings, staging a relief rally on results that were in line with market expectations though it warned that markets remain testing. The group said market conditions in the quarter ended 30 June 2009 have remained challenging but largely unchanged.

Xstrata was a prominent faller. The Switzerland-based firm said ferrochrome production was 60% lower in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year, but the group saw increased production volumes of copper, thermal coal, mined nickel and zinc compared to the first half of 2008.

Elsewhere in the mining sector gold miner, Randgold Resources is to tap shareholders for almost Ł200m following a surge in profits in the three months to June. Randgold, which has seen its share price jump by nearly 70% over the past 12 months, will offer 5m shares to fund the feasibility studies and development of its Gounkoto and Massawa projects.

Oil giant BP fell after it announced second quarter replacement cost profits towards the top end of market expectations. Replacement cost profit rose to $3.14bn from $2.39bn in the first quarter, but was less than half the $6.75bn achieved in the second quarter of last year. Earnings per share rose to 16.76 cents from 12.75 cents in the first quarter.

South Africa-based bank Investec is another on the fund raising trail. It is to raise up to Ł90m through a placing of 22m new shares. The placing, representing 4.92% of the existing shares, will be used to fund the repurchase of existing debt at a discount to par. The price at which the shares will be placed will be determined at the end of the book-building process.

Business publisher Informa closed nearly 10% lower after revealing a fall in profits.

Paper and packaging firm Mondi confirmed underlying opening profit for the second quarter of 2009 will be similar to the first quarter and said it had been further impacted by a special item charge of €80m in the half.

Tough times in the semiconductor business sent both revenue and profits tumbling at chip designer ARM over the past three months, though it increased the interim dividend by 10%.

Semiconductor group Wolfson cut losses in the last three months as sales picked up, but end-consumer demand visibility continues to be poor and order patterns volatile, it cautioned.

Chemical firm Croda revealed a 14% drop in interim profit after making a loss at its industrial specialties division but said it is confident of making overall good progress for the rest of the year.

Imperial Leather soap maker PZ Cussons whisked up a better than expected 16% rise in annual pre-tax profit and looks ahead with cautious optimism. Pre-tax profit rose to Ł88.8m for the year ended 31 May 2009 from Ł76.5m the previous year after a good performance across the group. Analysts had pencilled in pre-tax profit of around Ł87m.

Sub-prime lender Provident Financial saw interim pre-tax profit rise 3.5% and said it expects to deliver continued growth for the year despite remaining cautious about new lending.

The dark days of the credit crunch are fading for buy-to-let lender Paragon, which said that income for the April – June quarter was slightly ahead of expectations. Charges for bad debts were lower than the average quarterly charge for the first half of the financial year as a result of the more stable arrears position and the success of the company’s new collections methodology.

Hallin Marine, the AIM quoted provider of subsea solutions to the oil and gas industry, has signed a $6.5m contract for the Hallin operated vessel the Sanko Angel with a major oil & gas operator.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 191.70p +3.40%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 500.50p +2.35%
Next (NXT) 1,683.00p +1.75%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 333.50p +1.52%
National Grid (NG.) 571.00p +1.15%
Hammerson (HMSO) 328.50p +0.92%
Shire Plc (SHP) 891.00p +0.85%
Tesco (TSCO) 369.90p +0.85%
Pennon Group (PNN) 463.00p +0.82%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 300.00p +0.76%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Randgold Resources (RRS) 3,685.00p -8.65%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 802.50p -6.85%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 789.00p -6.79%
Xstrata (XTA) 735.20p -6.53%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 717.50p -6.51%
Invensys (ISYS) 246.75p -4.91%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,835.50p -4.67%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,338.00p -4.67%
Old Mutual (OML) 93.99p -4.25%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 42.00p -4.02%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 424.00p +4.69%
Goldman Sachs Dynamic Opportunities EUR Shares (GSDE) € 1.08 +2.85%
BH Global GBP Shares (BHGG) 1,048.00p +2.64%
Computacenter (CCC) 218.00p +2.59%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 214.50p +2.14%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 108.00p +2.13%
Stobart Group (STOB) 101.50p +2.01%
SEGRO (SGRO) 26.00p +1.96%
Domino Printing (DNO) 235.00p +1.95%
Interserve (IRV) 184.00p +1.94%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Informa (INF) 227.50p -9.99%
Yell Group (YELL) 29.50p -9.92%
SVG Capital (SVI) 113.50p -9.92%
Inchcape (INCH) 22.50p -8.16%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 80.50p -6.94%
Provident Financial (PFG) 799.00p -6.55%
Peter Hambro Mining (POG) 607.50p -6.47%
Dimension Data Holdings (DDT) 60.50p -6.20%
Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 527.50p -5.72%
Game Group (GMG) 142.50p -5.63%

Sector Risers

Name	Value	% Change
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology	8,112.69	+0.7%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities	3,540.69	+0.6%
Food & Drug Retailers	4,292.97	+0.5%
Real Estate	1,638.70	+0.5%
Health Care Equipment & Services	2,585.76	+0.5%

Sector Fallers

Name	Value	% Change
Automobiles & Parts	2,151.02	-4.9%
Mining	15,380.90	-4.2%
Industrial Metals	4,126.71	-3.2%
General Industrials	1,691.00	-3.1%
Oil Equipment & Services	13,100.76	-3.0%