LONDON (ShareCast) - Blue chips staged an afternoon recovery, clawing their way out of the red to close well in positive territory, helped in part by an improvement in Wall Street's performance.

RBS was top of the tree on talk of stakebuilding by hedge fund TCI, while others say subscription levels for the bank’s £12bn rights issue are high.

There were also gains for Lloyds TSB after Citigroup revealed that management had confirmed to it that the bank is still targeting “underlying double-digit economic profit growth across all three divisions.”

HBOS, which recently announced its own £4bn cash call, has come under pressure though following this morning’s news that underwriters to Bradford & Bingley's emergency rights issue were on the point of pulling the plug on the deal before private equity giant Texas Pacific Group bailed out the buy-to-let lender.

Barclays, Standard Chartered, Alliance & Leicester and HSBC fell lower.

Miners also weakened, with Vedanta and ENRC the major fallers, the former after credit rating agency Moody’s left its rating for the stock unchanged and said it saw little likelihood of change in the near future. The latter was hit by speculation fellow Kazakh miner Kazakhmys may sell its 15% stake.

Oil and gas group BG has signed two liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreements with Brazil's Petrobras. Under the terms of the agreements, BG will supply the import terminals being built by Petrobras in Pecem and in Guanabara Bay.

DIY retailer Home Retail Group got a lift from Seymour Pierce, which rates the shares a “buy”, having previously rated them a “hold”.

Informa featured among the mid-cap risers after JP Morgan started coverage on the business publisher and conference organiser with an ‘overweight’ rating and 525p price target.

Directories group Yell fell lower, however, after UBS sliced its price target to 135p from 150p.

Engineering and project management company Amec was in demand after entering into an agreement with BP International to provide engineering and project management services for BP's offshore developments.

Elsewhere, no-frills airline Ryanair is to ground up to 20 aircraft, or 10% of its fleet, mainly at Stansted and Dublin, adding "The outlook for the coming fiscal year to March 2009 remains entirely dependent on fares and fuel prices. Based on forward bookings, we now believe it likely that average fares for the coming year will rise by approx. +5% and if oil prices remain at $130 per barrel, then we expect to accordingly breakeven for fiscal '09."

It posted a 20% increase in full year net profits after tax to March of €481m. Traffic grew by 20% to 51m and revenues grew 21% to €2.714bn.

LNG specialist engineer Hamworthy lifted full year profits to £17.4m from £13.6m. Sales rose by 21% to £232m. Its closing order book rose by 16% to £311.8m. " The near term outlook for the group is secure, being underpinned by a strong order book which the group expects will deliver another year of strong sales," it said.

Pre-tax profit at United Utilities fell last year by 5% to £478m, though on an underlying basis the utility says there was a 17% gain, better than expected. "We are confident of delivering a strong financial performance over the remainder of this regulatory period," it said.

Taylor Nelson Sofres and Germany's Gfk have agreed a merger to create the world's second-biggest market research company with a market value of about $3.7bn. Taylor Nelson is to offer 11.74 new TNS shares for each Gfk share.

There was further cheer for AIM listed Mediterranean Oil & Gas today after its 100%-owned Ombrina Mare 2 appraisal well offshore Italy was completed and the field confirmed as a discovery.

Acquisitions and upgrades to existing assets helped Russia-based Urals Energy more than double its reserves last year. Estimates showed that the acquisition of Taas Yuriakh and upward revisions to Dulisma reserves estimates led to a 104% increase in total proved and probable (2P) reserves to 1.183 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Internet video streaming firm Forbidden Technologies loses ground despite narrowing full year operating losses as sales almost halved in 2007. Sales dropped to £70,848 from £131,535 in 2006, although bosses said this “should not be read as a meaningful trend nor an indication of the future potential of the company.”

A fast growing international business helped digital tetra radio provider Sepura post bigger annual pre-tax profit.

Protherics saw full-year losses widen but the drug developer said it expects trading to be strong in during 2009.

Travel company Hogg Robinson matched reduced expectations for full year profits, but said it remains cautious about its Events & Meetings Management and SME activities in the short term.

Full year profits jumped 20% at aircraft components group Umeco as demand remained “robust” for composite materials and “buoyant” for supply chain services.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 244.75p +8.30%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 242.75p +6.35%
Amec (AMEC) 884.00p +4.18%
Standard Life (SL.) 262.50p +3.96%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 238.00p +3.93%
Kingfisher (KGF) 138.80p +3.50%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 642.00p +3.38%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 388.75p +3.05%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,028.00p +2.94%
Cable & Wireless (CW.) 166.00p +2.85%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,367.00p -5.33%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,424.00p -3.23%
Persimmon (PSN) 456.00p -2.41%
HBOS (HBOS) 351.75p -2.29%
Carnival (CCL) 1,897.00p -1.66%
Sage Group (SGE) 223.50p -1.54%
Barclays (BARC) 360.25p -1.44%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,807.00p -0.99%
British Land Co (BLND) 776.00p -0.96%
Shire Ltd (SHP) 830.00p -0.95%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Meggitt (MGGT) 255.00p +5.37%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 104.50p +5.29%
Informa (INF) 386.75p +4.81%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 481.50p +4.22%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 512.00p +4.07%
DSG International (DSGI) 61.00p +3.83%
Xchanging (XCH) 258.00p +3.72%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 67.75p +3.44%
easyJet (EZJ) 295.25p +3.42%
Charter (CHTR) 926.50p +3.40%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
PartyGaming (PRTY) 277.50p -7.50%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 156.50p -6.57%
Redrow (RDW) 223.25p -4.08%
888 Holdings (888) 139.25p -3.97%
Findel (FDL) 218.75p -3.74%
Grainger (GRI) 263.25p -3.48%
Bellway (BWY) 603.00p -3.21%
Rightmove (RMV) 330.00p -2.94%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 303.00p -2.65%
TR Property Investment Sigma Shares (TRYS) 77.00p -2.53%

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