LONDON (ShareCast) - Leading shares are sharply lower, with retailers taking a pounding following a profits warning from jewellery retailer Signet, while housebuilders remain deflated by the downward trend in property prices.

Signet spooked the high street by warning of a sharp drop off in fourth quarter trading, which means it is unlikely to meet full year forecasts. Argos-owner Home Retail fell in sympathy, while Next, Marks & Spencer, Kingfisher and DSG International are also on the back foot.

Yesterday’s report from Hometrack showing further falls in property prices had housebuilders Barratt, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey nursing losses.

Meanwhile, falling metal prices knocked miners, with Antofagasta, Vedanta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto among the casualties.

Barclays remains among the best performers after it said 2007 earnings per share are expected to be broadly in line with current market consensus, despite the credit worries.

The market breathed a sigh of relief as the UK's third-largest bank provided no further surprises on losses related to the current credit crisis, and announced good underlying growth in retail and commercial banking for the first nine months of the year.

Northern Rock has usurped Barclays’ as best performing Footsie stock as it rises on news that SRM Global Master Fund has upped its stake in the company from 6.84% to 8.5%. Fellow mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley is also going well, but Paragon is back on the slide again after a brief rally yesterday when it was thought it would stave off an emergency rights issue by selling off parts of its loan book.

Water utility Severn Trent, which is facing criminal charges for providing false information to water regulator Ofwat, blamed severe flooding in the UK for a 6% fall in interim profits to £149.5m in the six months to end September. However, a 13.5% rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £161.5m and a decent dividend hike helped sentiment.

British Airways has lurched lower after official confirmation that it will not be bidding for Spanish airliner Iberia.

Meanwhile, UBS has downgraded food and retail group Associated British Foods to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ and chopped its price target to 955p from 990p, citing the weak US dollar.

Among the mid-caps, good results are helping WS Atkins and De La Rue. Civil engineer Atkins posted profits up 46% due to good performances across all its business segments, helping dividends rise 25%.

Banknote printer De La Rue is to review its dividend policy and financial structure after another strong half, with profits up 23% to £53.8m in the six months to end September. Sales rose by 5.1% £345m. Security Paper and Print's second half performance will be significantly ahead of last year, it added.

Electronic component distributor Abacus has surged ahead after returning to profitability in the year to end-September 2007.

Bid talks at Broker Network finally came to fruition today as the company agreed to a 605p cash per share offer from Towergate, the independently owned insurance intermediary.

Property group Renew Holdings was wanted after announcing a 55% jump in pre-tax profits. The chief executive, Brian May, took the opportunity to increase his stake by buying 50,000 shares at a pound apiece.

Shares in armed guard supplier ArmorGroup were dented as it warned profits will be lower than last year while chief executive David Seaton has left the group.

Car dealer Pendragon saw its share price slashed by a third after it reduced its profit expectations for next year by £18m.

Communications software specialist Artilium slumped after UBS announced it had disposed of its entire holding of 3.8m shares in the company.

Retailer Topps Tiles has seen sales slow sharply in recent weeks. Profit before tax dipped to £37.8m in the year to September from £39.1m as the costs of a share buy-back programme took effect. Like-for-like revenues rose 4.7%, but fell to growth of 1.1% in the first seven weeks of the new financial year.

Telecoms group KCOM upped its dividend by 44% as a sign of confidence in the future despite profits falling in the first half. Pre-tax profits dipped from £10.3m to £5.3m in the half-year to September, reflecting higher interest charges and amortisation of its recent acquisitions.

Market Movers
techMARK 1,468.88 -1.45%
FTSE 100 6,084.50 -1.55%
FTSE 250 10,220.30 -2.23%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Northern Rock (NRK) 120.00p +8.99%
Barclays (BARC) 515.50p +3.72%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,505.00p +2.94%
Man Group (EMG) 525.50p +2.94%
HBOS (HBOS) 754.50p +1.62%
Centrica (CNA) 348.25p +0.72%
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA) 140.30p +0.43%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 724.00p +0.35%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 424.25p +0.35%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 589.50p +0.26%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Compass Group (CPG) 278.50p -6.39%
ICAP (IAP) 624.50p -6.37%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 334.50p -6.17%
British Airways (BAY) 309.50p -6.14%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,934.00p -5.93%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 187.50p -5.35%
Kingfisher (KGF) 154.10p -5.34%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 650.50p -5.04%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,755.00p -5.00%
Next (NXT) 1,689.00p -4.95%

FTSE 250 - Risers
De La Rue (DLAR) 838.50p +7.36%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 27.00p +6.93%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,233.00p +4.31%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 274.75p +3.78%
Benfield Group (BFD) 292.25p +3.73%
BSS Group (BTSM) 426.50p +3.71%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,203.00p +3.26%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 159.00p +2.25%
Imperial Energy Corporation (IEC) 1,247.00p +1.55%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 98.50p +1.55%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Pendragon (PDG) 34.00p -37.33%
Signet Group (SIG) 65.75p -14.61%
Axon Group (AXO) 551.00p -11.34%
Regus Group (RGU) 74.00p -10.30%
Invensys (ISYS) 221.00p -10.25%
Morgan Crucible (MGCR) 236.25p -7.17%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 221.00p -7.05%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 122.00p -6.51%
Weir Group (WEIR) 732.00p -6.45%
LogicaCMG (LOG) 115.50p -6.29%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
SDL International (SDL) 257.50p +3.41%
Alphameric (ALM) 28.00p +2.75%
Antisoma (ASM) 28.50p +2.70%
Morse (MOR) 69.75p +2.57%
GB Group (GBG) 21.75p +2.35%
DRS Data (DRS) 24.50p +2.08%
MTL Instruments (MTI) 585.00p +1.74%
Vislink (VLK) 54.75p +1.39%
BTG (BGC) 95.00p +1.06%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 52.50p +0.96%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Torotrak (TRK) 26.00p -9.57%
Bionostics (BIO) 15.25p -8.96%
Gresham Computing (GHT) 75.00p -6.54%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 21.75p -6.45%
ARC International (ARK) 36.50p -6.41%
Imagination Technologies (IMG) 102.50p -5.96%
Puricore (PURI) 29.00p -5.69%
Acambis (ACM) 125.25p -4.93%
Electronic Data Processing (EDP) 52.50p -4.55%
Alizyme (AZM) 71.50p -4.35%

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