London close: Week's gains surrendered

LONDON (ShareCast) - London ended the week on a dull note, giving up all of the gains seen earlier this week, with fallers today outnumbering risers by three to one among Footsie constituents. ENRC's rejected bid approach for Kazakhmys came after the bell and too late to affect proceedings.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, HBOS, HBSC and Barclays were the major sufferers in the banking sector, with the latter suffering the additional blow of a downgrade to “underweight” from “equal weight” by Morgan Stanley.

Insurers reacted badly to the cash call from US insurance giant AIG. Old Mutual, Royal & Sun Alliance and Legal & General were prominent among fallers.

Carphone Warehouse was friendless after analysts get their teeth into the fine detail of the company’s deal with Best Buy. Citigroup reiterated its “sell” advice today as it awaits further news on the company’s deteriorating cash position.

Business software group Sage Group also suffered broker-inspired losses after Investec Securities downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy” following yesterday’s results.

Shares in music and games retailer HMV fell despite upbeat earnings. The group reported a 10.1% rise in like-for-like sales in the 16 weeks ended 26 April and said it expects full-year profits before tax and exceptional costs to be towards the upper end of market expectations.

Electronic component group Laird reported a strong start to 2008. In the three months to March, revenue from continuing operations grew by 35% compared with the same period in 2007.

Sub-prime lender Cattles also saw a strong start to the year. "Trading conditions for our business have been favourable." Cattles launched a £200m cash call last month.

Magners cider group C&C's operating profits fell by 37% last year to February on sales down to €679m from €738m. The group said its performance in both Ireland and Great Britain reflects weak market conditions related to the combination of low consumer confidence and poor spring weather. For the full year C&C expects modest overall revenue growth and some improvement in operating margins.

Engineer IMI said its end markets generally remain firm with no discernible change in order momentum in recent months. Prospects for the oil and gas and power markets look positive for its Severe Service business.

British Energy was in focus as the latest deadline for potential bidders loomed. French power giant EDF has reportedly tabled an independent takeover offer today but German group RWE is not interested any more according to German paper reports.

Talks regarding BG Group’s £6.2bn (A$12.9bn) bid approach for Australia’s Origin Energy are ongoing, but have been inconclusive, the UK oil and gas giant said.

Private equity firm Vitruvian Partners has launched a recommended 45p a share cash offer for AIM listed TV production company Tinopolis worth £44.7m. Vitruvian, whose bid represents a 32% premium to Thursday night’s closing price, has received irrevocable undertakings to back the offer representing 55.6% of the shares.

Flomerics has rejected a 104p per share cash offer from Mentor Graphics, saying it undervalues the simulation software specialist.

Shares in AIM-listed mobile banking and payments firm Monitise powered ahead after it said it is joining forces with Carphone Warehouse to start a mobile money scheme using a pre-pay card.

Investors soured on cooker and kitchen equipment maker Aga Foodservice after it said trading is mixed as sector data indicates the value of cooker sales has fallen in most international markets this year.

Psion said order intake in the first four months of 2008 has been strong and the mobile computing solutions firm expects that results for the first half will be in line with expectations.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Experian Group (EXPN) 421.25p +3.50%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,395.00p +1.68%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,307.00p +1.48%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,775.00p +1.31%
BAE Systems (BA.) 478.00p +1.27%
Diageo (DGE) 1,041.00p +1.26%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 276.50p +1.19%
TUI Travel (TT.) 257.25p +1.08%
Thomson Reuters (TRIL) 1,577.00p +0.90%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 398.75p +0.89%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 268.00p -7.27%
Sage Group (SGE) 213.75p -5.63%
Persimmon (PSN) 604.50p -5.55%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 265.50p -5.43%
British Airways (BAY) 228.25p -4.30%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 777.00p -4.01%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,400.00p -3.88%
Hammerson (HMSO) 964.00p -3.70%
Old Mutual (OML) 120.60p -3.37%
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA) 139.40p -3.13%

FTSE 250 - Risers
IMI (IMI) 504.50p +5.49%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 472.75p +5.17%
Marston's (MARS) 232.00p +3.23%
Imperial Energy Corporation (IEC) 975.00p +3.12%
Rank Group (RNK) 92.50p +3.06%
Hardy Oil & Gas (HDY) 823.00p +3.00%
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) 250.75p +2.56%
Aricom (ORE) 84.75p +2.11%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 387.75p +2.04%
Yell Group (YELL) 196.00p +1.95%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Assura Group (AGR) 95.00p -6.40%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 274.75p -6.31%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 69.75p -5.74%
HMV Group (HMV) 140.75p -5.70%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 137.25p -5.67%
Melrose Resources (MRS) 379.50p -5.60%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 68.00p -5.23%
easyJet (EZJ) 285.00p -5.00%
Aga Foodservice Group (AGA) 292.00p -4.73%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 959.00p -4.48%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
NXT (NTX) 16.00p +28.00%
Torotrak (TRK) 25.50p +7.37%
Psion (PON) 113.00p +7.11%
Axis-Shield (ASD) 315.00p +3.28%
Elan (ELA) € 17.94 +3.10%
Vectura Group (VEC) 50.25p +2.03%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 212.00p +1.92%
Alphameric (ALM) 18.50p +1.37%
Filtronic (FTC) 170.75p +1.19%
ARC International (ARK) 23.00p +1.10%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 24.50p -5.77%
Computacenter (CCC) 195.50p -5.56%
Vislink (VLK) 32.75p -5.07%
Imagination Technologies (IMG) 71.25p -5.00%
Intec Telecom (ITL) 54.50p -4.80%
Skyepharma (SKP) 10.00p -4.76%
Kofax (KFX) 210.00p -4.55%
AEA Technology (AAT) 67.25p -3.93%
Morse (MOR) 52.00p -3.70%
Detica Group (DCA) 307.00p -3.46%