London open: Cautious start after great run

A late recovery in the US has failed to get London off to a good start and Footsie is struggling to trade higher for the eighth day in a row.

Miners are a major weak spot this morning. The underlying trend for metals demand is still being masked by restocking activity, according to BHP Billiton, and demand for commodities generally is mixed as China has rebuilt its stocks. Rio, ENRC, Kazakhmys and Lonmin are all lower.

Engineer GKN has received the backing of 95.4% of shareholders for its Ł423m fundraising. Over 807m of the shares available through the fully underwritten 6 for 5 rights issue at 50p were taken up.

Just over 91% of shareholders at Marston’s also backed the brewer and pub owner’s Ł176m fully underwritten 11 for 10 cash call at 59p. The firm has been criticised for earmarking the money to finance expansion rather than reduce its Ł1.2bn debt pile.

Business publisher Euromoney saw heavy falls across three of its revenue streams in the last three months and cautioned that the one bright spot, subscriptions, is also now slowing. Total revenues for the quarter to June 30, 2009 fell by 11% to Ł84.2m.

US solar panel group Energy Conversion Devices has offered to buy Aim-listed Solar Integrated Technologies for $16.3m including debt.