London afternoon: London puts the brakes on

Date: Wednesday 21 Jan 2009

Share prices are off the bottom, and fallers barely outnumber risers now among Footsie constituents.

Once again, banks are the main focus. Barclays is leading the slide, down by around one-tenth as concerns persist that it may need more funding or be nationalised. Like the newly formed Lloyds Banking Group, however, Barclays has clawed back a substantial proportion of the losses it suffered this morning.

Meanwhile Royal Bank of Scotland continues its recent revival, while Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered is also wanted.

Elsewhere in the financial sector the renewed weakness in global stock markets is undermining fund manager Schroders but hedge fund group Man has reversed earlier losses, despite broker Keefe, Bruyette and Woods cutting its price target from 500p to 400p.

Data search and archiving specialist Autonomy is higher after a number of positive broker comments following its fourth quarter results. Autonomy’s profit before tax in the fourth quarter more than doubled to a record $70.5m from $32.9m, while full-year pre-tax profit jumped to $185.7m from $91.5m.

Oil explorer Tullow Oil has hailed its best ever year in 2008 and said it has made a strong start to 2009. The group also announced plans to increase its share capital by some 9.1% through a placing of 66.9m shares.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has slashed 6,000 jobs and shut down a key nickel mine though its iro ore operations are holding up.

Mail and parcels group Business Post grew revenues by 3% in the last three months of 2008 as mail growth outstripped a slowdown in parcels.

Struggling fund manager RAB Capital's assets under management tumbled to $1.9bn from $7.2bn a year ago, with the firm also to take a hit this year for asset write-downs.

Car component maker TT Electronics said it will slash a further 700 jobs in 2009 and focus on niche components markets as it weathers a sharp slowdown in the auto sector. In a company statement the group said, "Trading conditions remain very difficult, although actions taken in 2008 and planned for 2009 will partially mitigate the impact of the economic slow-down."

Abcam, a biosciences firm that markets antibodies online, said weakness in sterling contributed to strong trading in the six months to December 31 and expects full-year results to be ‘materially ahead of expectations.’

Polymer engineering company Avon Rubber said it returned to profit in the three months to 31 December 2008 and is confident that it will return to full year profit.

Sliding copper prices and a lack of working capital forced miner African Copper to suspend activities at its Mowana mine in Botswana.

Seafood restaurant group FishWorks has become the latest victim of the crisis in consumer confidence and has called in the administrators

Begbies Traynor reported a 31% rise in half year pre-tax profits thanks to strong growth in its core insolvency and restructuring division.

Healthcare support services specialist Synergy Health posts a healthy rise after it said it is trading in line and is on course to restore group net operating margins to previous levels by Autumn of this year.

Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown is wanted after Citigroup upgraded the shares from “hold” to “buy” and raised its price target from 165p to 190p. Sector peer Brewin Dolphin rises in sympathy.

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