LONDON (ShareCast) - Leading shares remain in the red with banks, housebuilders and miners weighing heavy on the Footsie index.

Banking stocks are in the doldrums, with HBOS, Alliance & Leicester, Lloyds TSB and Standard Chartered the major fallers in the sector.

Persimmon falls back sharply after Goldman Sachs lowered its stance on the housebuilder to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’. The broker said the Persimmon will be unable to escape the effects of a housing downturn and land writedowns despite its disciplined management and high quality land holdings.

Meanwhile, another set of gloomy house sales figures depress Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley, Bovis and Redrow – the later after also being downgraded to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’ by Goldman Sachs.

Tesco is also lower after it confirmed fears of a slowing growth rate in the UK market. The group said that although food category performance has been good, its rate of growth in non-food has eased as consumers have become more cautious with their spending during recent months. Sainsbury sees its price cut in sympathy.

ICAP is suffering after Credit Suisse downgraded the interdealer broker to 'underperform' from 'neutral'.

ENRC is going strong after Kazakhmys agreed to acquire a further 7.7% stake in its fellow Kazakh miner to increase its stake in the group to 22.24%.

Morgan Stanley has started coverage on the India-focused miner Vedanta with an ‘overweight’ rating and a 3,500p price target. Among the reasons it gave for buying shares in the miner were the company’s diverse portfolio, its record of delivering projects in India and its growth prospects.

Brewer SABMiller is expanding its operations in Russia after agreeing to buy LLC Vladpivo, the largest brewer in the Russian far east Primorie region.

BAE Systems has completed its acquisition of Ohio-based MTC Technologies in a deal worth $450m.

Tullow Oil has signed a memorandum of understanding with Eni for the sale of its 51.69% interest in the offshore Hewett Unit fields in the North Sea.

Insulation board maker Kingspan is to buy back up to 10% of its 171.1 million shares and said it is reviewing acquisitions worth about €100m.

Irn-Bru maker AG Barr reports revenue for the first 13 weeks of the financial year increased by 4%, meanwhile fashion group Ted Baker raised revenues by 8.4% in the 19-week period to 7 June 2008.

Property investment firm Warner Estate swung into a full-year pre-tax loss after a year of tough trading conditions "with the credit crunch having a significant impact on property values."

Broker and clearing house for the sports betting industry Betbrokers has reduced the market's expectations for the year and said revenues for the full year will be lower.

Goldman Sachs has lowered its rating on Northern Foods to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’, saying that the Goodfellas pizza maker could suffer in coming months if commodity prices stay high.

Oil and gas explorer Soco International firms up after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold”.

Shares in direct marketing firm DM Group moved higher after it announced a strategic review which it said could lead to an offer being made for the company.

Informa, the business publisher being courted by UBM, adds to yesterday’s gains on rumours that Candover may gatecrash the merger deal.

Debt consultant Fairpoint has lost over half its value on news it has scrapped the interim dividend and warned that worse than expected full year figures will miss consensus forecasts.

Strategic Thought saw full-year pre-tax losses widen but the enterprise risk management specialist said it expects to return to profitability over the next 12 months.

Financially troubled marketing firm Media Square said annual losses increased as it completed its first year of a three year turnaround.

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