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Date: Tuesday 26 Aug 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - London is expected to open in downbeat mood after heavy falls on Wall Street overnight. Footsie is tipped to shed more than 60 points.

Mining giant Rio Tinto posted record underlying earnings of $5,47bn, up 55%, and record net earnings of $6.91bn, up 113%, in the half year to June. Both figures were ahead of market forecasts and boosted by the 2007 acquisition of Alcan and strong demand from China.

Cairn Energy swung from an operating loss of $18.7m to a profit of $44.2m in the half-year to June as its average price per barrel of crude more than doubled. Revenue jumped to $180.4m from $138.7m. " Cairn India is on track to deliver crude oil from Rajasthan in the second half of 2009 and significant progress has been made towards optimising and sustaining plateau production levels in this core asset," it added.

Oil services group John Wood posted a 46% rise in first-half profit to $181.3m and added it would to beat full-year expectations. All major business areas showing good growth with upstream very active and strong demand for subsea engineering activities. Revenue rose by 19% to $2.53bn.

IT services group Axon has been snapped up by a fast-growing Indian rival. Infosys, for £407m.

Energy companies may be unsettled by a report in the Times that the Prime Minister faces the prospect of the resignation of at least one ministerial aide if he fails to impose a new levy on energy companies’ profits.

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