LONDON (ShareCast) - London ended the week in the red, giving up the gains seen earlier today, as oil majors weighed on stocks.

BG was one of the worst performers after Australia's Origin Energy rejected its revised £6.6bn bid saying its coal seam gas reserves alone were worth more than the offer. Origin said it would now focus on how to get the best value from its reserves, possibly through partnerships or a break-up of the company. BG said it is considering its options.

Other oil companies were down with the oil price, which slipped $4 per barrel overnight in the US, with a review pending by US authorities into possible market rigging by speculators. Tullow Oil, BP and Shell were down in a weak sector.

British Airways was the day’s best performer with Carnival, Easyjet and Ryanair also up strongly. The one exception was Silverjet, which said Friday afternoon that it has appointed administrators having failed to seal a deal to keep the business flying.

Bus and train groups were also ahead led by FirstGroup and Arriva.

The European Commission said it would either rule on BHP Billiton's hostile takeover of rival Rio Tinto by 4 July or open an in depth antitrust review.

SG Securities has begun coverage on Land Securities with a ‘sell’ recommendation and a 1,260p target price, saying the real estate giant’s recent buoyancy on demerger plans has been overplayed.

Telecoms regulator Ofcom is to review of the prices that BT's Openreach wholesale arm can charge rivals to use its network in the light of significant increases in competition in the market.

Morgan Stanley has lifted its recommendation on the electrical retailer DSG International to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal-weight’ and raised its price target to 90p from 57p.

The broker said it sees the Currys and PC World owner potentially benefiting from organic growth and a joint bid from mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse and the US electrical specialist Best Buy.

Goldman Sachs has raised its recommendation on Taylor Wimpey to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’ following sharp falls in the housebuilder’s share price over the past year.

Wireless electronics group Filtronic shot ahead as US private equity group Carlyle announced it is mulling an offer. Online gamer Partygaming was also going well on talk that it may have agreed a settlement to its legal problems in the US.

Stockbroker Brewin Dolphin lifted interim pre-tax profits to March by 4.9% to £21.8m with total income up 6.2% at £104.1m (2007: £98m) after a strong performance from its discretionary fund management activities. Discretionary funds under management were £10.4bn. "Despite difficult conditions we expect a creditable outcome from your group for the year," it added.

Property investment firm Wichford saw its net asset value for the half-year slump 35% due to the difficult market conditions, though trading profit rose 39%. Net asset value for the six months fell to 136.4p compared to 218p in the same period last year.

Telecoms solution group Leadcom said Old Lane will no longer make an investment in the group because of current market conditions. Leadcom said in March that it had received a non-binding offer from Old Lane for investment in Leadcom, subject to due diligence.

Controls and instrumentation engineering group Kentz shares were in demand after the company announced a major order from Qatar.

Severfield-Rowen said its shareholders have rejected the structural steel supplier’s decision to pay its former managing director John Severs a bonus “in an amount outside investor guidelines”.

FTSE 100 - Risers
British Airways (BAY) 232.50p +8.14%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,015.00p +4.13%
FirstGroup (FGP) 529.50p +4.13%
Standard Life (SL.) 251.00p +3.51%
Friends Provident (FP.) 121.10p +3.50%
Carnival (CCL) 1,918.00p +2.84%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,456.00p +2.52%
Pearson (PSON) 682.50p +2.48%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 832.00p +2.46%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 234.25p +2.40%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 890.00p -3.47%
HBOS (HBOS) 400.00p -3.44%
Cadbury (CBRY) 674.00p -2.60%
John Wood Group (WG.) 446.00p -2.57%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,914.00p -2.35%
BG Group (BG.) 1,266.00p -2.16%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,055.00p -2.02%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,105.00p -1.86%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,150.00p -1.74%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 3,366.00p -1.55%

FTSE 250 - Risers
PartyGaming (PRTY) 286.50p +10.09%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 412.75p +6.04%
SIG (SHI) 737.00p +4.84%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 135.50p +4.23%
Galiform (GFRM) 59.25p +3.95%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,491.00p +3.90%
888 Holdings (888) 147.00p +3.52%
PayPoint (PAY) 627.50p +3.38%
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 146.50p +3.35%
Telecity Group (TCY) 248.00p +3.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Mondi (MNDI) 360.00p -7.81%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 370.50p -7.66%
Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 892.50p -5.90%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 575.00p -5.12%
Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 231.25p -4.84%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 261.25p -4.65%
BSS Group (BTSM) 368.75p -4.59%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 352.75p -4.34%
ITE Group (ITE) 172.50p -4.17%
DS Smith (SMDS) 134.25p -4.11%

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