LONDON (ShareCast) - A late rally rescued London from the depths of despair Tuesday as Wall Street rallied hard in early deals, although weak retailers and glum miners kept the leading index in the red.

The UK market, which was almost 120 points lower in afternoon trade, fought back on news that Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is to plough $7.5bn into banking giant Citigroup.

Barclays was 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 was best blue chip though as it emerged that SRM Global Master Fund has upped its stake in the company to 8.5% from 6.84%. Fellow mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley was also in demand.

But jewellery retailer 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 was joined in retreat by Next, Marks & Spencer, Kingfisher and DSG International.

There were also further losses for housebuilders Barratt, Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey following yesterday’s report from Hometrack showing another fall in property prices.

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

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.

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 helped civil engineer WS Atkins. It posted profits up a better than expected 46%, 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 surged ahead after returning to profitability for the full year, although armed guard supplier ArmorGroup warned profits will be lower than last year, while chief executive David Seaton has left the group.

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.

Car dealer Pendragon saw its share price slashed by a third after it reduced its profit expectations for next year by £18m, while communications software specialist Artilium slumped after UBS sold its entire stake 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.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Northern Rock (NRK) 118.70p +7.81%
Barclays (BARC) 524.00p +5.43%
Man Group (EMG) 530.00p +3.82%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,507.00p +3.08%
HBOS (HBOS) 764.00p +2.90%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 603.50p +2.64%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 422.25p +2.24%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,725.00p +2.13%
Capita Group (CPI) 696.50p +1.38%
Centrica (CNA) 350.50p +1.37%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
ICAP (IAP) 632.50p -5.17%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 340.25p -4.56%
Sage Group (SGE) 193.70p -4.35%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,975.00p -3.94%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 658.50p -3.87%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 190.50p -3.84%
Next (NXT) 1,709.00p -3.83%
British Airways (BAY) 317.75p -3.64%
Invesco (IVZ) 602.50p -3.52%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,809.00p -3.14%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Benfield Group (BFD) 335.50p +19.08%
De La Rue (DLAR) 850.00p +8.83%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 27.25p +7.92%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 282.75p +6.80%
BSS Group (BTSM) 436.50p +6.14%
Bodycote International (BOY) 232.00p +5.10%
Tradus (TRAD) 1,649.00p +5.03%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,235.00p +4.48%
Kier Group (KIE) 1,647.00p +3.65%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,200.00p +3.00%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Pendragon (PDG) 35.50p -34.56%
Signet Group (SIG) 64.00p -16.88%
Regus Group (RGU) 75.00p -9.09%
Invensys (ISYS) 227.50p -7.61%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 106.75p -6.77%
SThree (STHR) 198.00p -6.16%
Aveva Group (AVV) 899.00p -6.06%
Michael Page International (MPI) 281.00p -5.70%
LogicaCMG (LOG) 116.50p -5.48%
Findel (FDL) 572.50p -5.22%

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