LONDON (ShareCast) - London is continuing to slide lower with the expected poor start in the US adding to the earlier woes from the financial sector.

Guernsey-based Carlyle Capital Corporation said it is to be liquidated after talks with its bankers came to nothing yesterday. Some $16bn of assets will be seized after the firm defaulted on its debt.

Financial plays are among the worst hit following last night’s reversal on Wall Street. Insurers Prudential, Old Mutual, Royal & Sun Alliance and Aviva are among the biggest fallers, while Friends Provident slipped as Citigroup cut its price target to 190p from 225p.

Barclays, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland are also nursing chunky losses.

It was also a grim day for plumbing supplies giant Wolseley, which fell after ABN Amro and Goldman Sachs both cut the shares to ‘sell’. Recession fears in the US are troubling the group due to its high exposure to the country.

Fuel guzzler British Airways lost altitude as oil prices trade at around $110 a barrel. The black gold’s strength came as the dollar weakened, although dealers said the rise was predominantly driven by speculative rather than physical demand.

You have to be a defensive play if you want to be a winner today. Consumer goods giant Unilever, energy firms International Power and Scottish & Southern Energy, and brewer Scottish & Newcastle are among just a handful of stocks in positive territory.

Kazakhmys, the London-listed copper miner, has denied claims that it has received a proposal from Kazakh miner Eurasian Natural Resources about an £18b deal.

The statement follows yesterday’s announcement by ENRC that it had held informal discussions with Kazakhmys as it explored possible strategic opportunities following its London flotation in December.

Supermarket Wm Morrison has boosted full year profit to £612m from £369m in 2006 on turnover up 6% to £13bn. It plans to return £1bn to shareholders during 2008 and 2009 and has made a “promising” start to the new financial year. Chairman Sir Ken Morrison retires today.

Home Retail expects to deliver another year of double-digit earnings growth in line with market forecasts. It said total sales at Argos grew 5.4% in the 8 weeks to 1 March and 1.9% like for like, while Homebase sales fell 0.7% and dropped by 5.3% like for like.

Elsewhere, housebuilder Berkeley Group said it expects results for the current financial year will be at the higher end of analysts’ expectations, despite the current turbulent market conditions.

Insulation and roofing supplier SIG boosted underlying pre-tax profit by 30% last year and said trading has started well in 2008.

Military aircraft decoys specialist Chemring jumped after it said its US subsidiary Kilgore has been awarded a contract for the supply of M212 flares to the US Department of Defense.

The deal extends over a five year period, and has a minimum value of $5.4m and a maximum value of $382.9m.

But reinsurance broker Benfield turned lower as it said difficult conditions are likely to continue into next year, with 2008 results expected to be below 2007 figures.

Rank Group’s online betting unit, Blue Square, is to make its first foray into the international betting market with the launch of a multi-lingual sports betting service, developed in conjunction with 888.

South-Africa based IT networks company Datatec said it had put in a strong second half to record its fifth successive annual increase in profits.

• News Channel