London midmorning: Shares stage partial recovery

Related Companies

Related Indices

Related Sectors

News for Spread Betters

PreviousPrevious
NextNext

There's a new Investor Edition of CMC Markets' spread betting platform... and it's exclusive to DigitalLook.com users...

Get full details about Marketmaker:Investor Edition here. Advertisement

Date: Tuesday 08 Jul 2008

  • Market Movers
  • techMARK 1,361.66 -1.54%
  • FTSE 100 5,382.50 -2.36%
  • FTSE 250 8,430.20 -2.24%

LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie has staged a partial recovery but still sits deep in the red following heavy falls on Wall Street overnight and after the British Chambers of Commerce described the economic situation here as ‘grim and ominous’.

Marks and Spencer is the day’s best performer, gaining just over 1% following heavy falls in its share price after a profit warning last week.

Drugs giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca also advance as investors seek cover in defensive stocks.

London Stock Exchange still leads the index lower, while building supplies group Wolseley, B&Q owner Kingfisher and Kazakh miner ENRC also fall heavily.

In the FTSE 250, Bradford and Bingley is taking a battering again, with fellow bank Alliance and Leicester also slipping back.

House builder Persimmon is also down even though it does not expect to announce any significant write down of its land values with its next interim results. It has cut 1,100 jobs to save £20m per year. First half sales were £1bn, a reduction of 34% on the first half of last year.

Deutsche Bank has raised its rating Lonmin to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’, saying shares in the platinum miner are now 27% off its 3,485p target price.

Investec has lowered its rating on Cadbury to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ on valuation grounds and lowered its target price on the chocolate manufacturer to 550p from 600p.

JP Morgan has raised its price target on Arriva by 100p to 905p and kept its ‘overweight’ rating on the bus and rail operator, pointing to its strong exposure to bus operations.

Estate agent Savills says trading conditions for its UK and US Commercial Capital Markets businesses and its UK Residential and Mortgage Broking businesses have continued to deteriorate with volumes down significantly on the comparable period in 2007. Predictions for the full year outcome are "very difficult".

IT services group Morse's chief executive has departed after sales and margins disappointed in the year just ended.

Online gamer PartyGaming says gross revenues have fallen since April due to seasonality and competition from Euro 2008. Casino perfromed strongly, offset by a weaker than expected performance in poker and sports betting. Overall revenues were slightly lower than expected.

A profits warning has also come from windows group Heywood Williams, with full year profit expected to come in significantly below market expectations. Drug developer SkyePharma has lost a quarter of its value as investors grow impatient at the firm's failure to make progress with plans to renegotiate or refinance its convertible bonds.

The few risers include alcohol tester Concateno, which has confirmed a bid approach.

Digital Look have been voted
"Best Research and Information Provider"

4th Floor, Bankside House, 107 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 4AF.
Registered in England and Wales (registered no. 3678570).