LONDON (ShareCast) - London continues to move sideways, with gains on banks offset by weak retailers.

Alliance & Leicester, HBOS, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds TSB are in demand, encouraged by reports of further government measures to ease the credit crunch.

Prudential boss Mark Tucker was in upbeat mood this morning as he reported a “very positive” start to the year for the insurer, with overall insurance sales up 13% in the first quarter to £729m.

Elsewhere in the insurance sector, news that the Financial Services Authority has approved the £4.98bn, 720p per share, takeover of Resolution by rival Pearl sent the insurer north.

Shareholders in SABMiller raise a glass to ING and Dresdner Kleinwort, both of which issued buy recommendations on the stock today. ING has a price target of 1500p for the brewer.

British Energy also rose on a report in the Times that German power giant RWE has teamed up with Vattenfall, of Sweden, to bid for the nuclear power group, but profit takers knocked yesterday's star, credit checking firm Experian, after some negative press comment and a downgrade from Citigroup.

Vodafone is also out of sorts after the FT said the telecoms titan is considering joining the bidding for Tiscali as the Italian telecoms group set a deadline of May 5 for initial non-binding offers.

Thomson Reuters begins its first day of trading in enlarged form as the whipping boy of the FTSE, registering the largest fall among the index’s constituents. ABN Amro and Collins Stewart have both initiated coverage of the group with sell recommendations.

BAE Systems falls back after Morgan Stanley changed its stance on the stock from “overweight” to “equal-weight”.

Elsewhere, oil drilling services provider Expro International heads the mid-caps after it agreed to be bought by a company formed by Candover Partners, Goldman Sachs and AlpInvest for £1.6bn, or 1,435p a share. Oil services company John Wood Group rises in sympathy.

Retailer WHSmith saw half-year profits come in 8% higher, beating expectations, but weakness on the high street hampered sales, falling 2% on a like for like basis.

Home shopping specialist Findel fell dramatically after it said it expects full-year pre-tax profit to be below its previous expectations due to higher bad debt provisions at its home shopping arm. Fellow home shopping firm N. Brown slides on fears it might suffer the same problems as Findel.

Recruitment firm Hays said current trading is in line with the statement it made last week, when it said that the growth in demand for its services continues to be strong in Asia Pacific and Continental Europe.

Energy efficiency measures provider Eaga said it has continued to make good progress and is ‘broadly’ on track to achieve its expectations for the current year, but that was not enough to prevent broker Brewin Dolphin from downgrading the stock to “add” from “buy”

Emerging markets fund manager Ashmore also fell despite flagging trading conditions in line with management expectations. Assets under management dropped 1% to $36.3bn in the third quarter.

Marketing communications firm Mission Marketing heads higher after reporting a pro-forma profits rise for the year and saying the current year has started well with the board confident of prospects for the year.

Mobile software developer i-mate quashed rumours of it being up for sale and said it has adequate cash resources.

Orthopaedic devices manufacturer Corin is on the back foot after it saw profits rise for the year but said there has been some delays of instrumentation and product shipment to the US.

Luminar shares react positively to the news that the company is paying Cavendish Bars £800,000 in cash to take 26 nightclubs off its hands. Luminar said it will make a net loss on the deal of £9.9m, but that the agreement completes the strategy of streamlining its activities. Charles Stanley responded to the deal by upgrading the stock to “hold” from “reduce” while Altium rates the shares a buy.

Printing technology group TripleArc has agreed to be bought by contract services provider Office2office for around £12.4m, a day after the group admitted it was in takeover talks.

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