LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie pared some of its gains late on as optimism dissipated slightly in the banking sector, but still finished well ahead.

HBOS led the way for much of the day, despite fears over its exposure to struggling British housebuilders after a company that formed one of the bank’s big investments called in restructuring experts. However, the bank gave up most of these gains with mining stocks knocking it down the rankings by the close of trading.

Mining stocks were wanted on the back of a strong rise in copper prices. Kazakhstan's ENRC was the top stock and was joined in the top 10 by Lonmin, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto.

Hotels and pub group Whitbread rose after it reported a strong start to the current year with growth in all of its businesses. Total sales in the 13 weeks to 29 May are up by 14.6% and like for like sales have grown by 7.1%. Like-for-like sales at Premier Inns rose by 10.7%, at pub restaurants by 3.6% and at Costa by 6.0%.

Housebuilders were in the doldrums again today, with Persimmon on the back foot, along with its mid-cap peers Barratt, Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley and Redrow.

Among mid-caps, shares in Yell Group fell back after Morgan Stanley downgraded the Yellow Pages owner to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘overweight’ and slashed its price target to 175p from 350p as part of a review of the media and internet sector.

Marketing company WPP Group and Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Mirror newspaper, also fell back after being downgraded by the broker.

Home Retail Group moved lower even after Investec Securities raised its rating on the Argos and Homebase to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and raised its price target to 277p from 265p, saying its high value offerings will prove defensive in the current economic climate.

In other broker coverage, JP Morgan has lowered its target price on Carphone Warehouse to 301p from 320p after the mobile phone retailer sounded a cautious note on future trading in its full year results last week.

Halma, which makes smoke detectors and warning devices, said full year underlying profit rose 11%, in line with expectations, on strong demand for its products.

Wincanton rose strongly after it dropped its plans to bid for rival logistics group TDG. "Wincanton has concluded that it is not in the best interests of Wincanton shareholders to proceed with an offer for TDG and has informed the Board of TDG of this decision. Wincanton accordingly confirms that it has no intention of making an offer for TDG at this time," it said in a statement.

Marine electronics group Raymarine slumped on a warning it expects earnings this year to be at the lower end of market expectations and similar to those achieved last year. Fewer dancers at its late-night bars has also prompted a profit warning from Premium Bars.

More good news sent shares in SkyePharma, maker of the experimental Flutiform asthma inhaler, higher for a second day. It said the inhaler has met its primary endpoints in a clinical study.

Coding and printing company Domino Printing is seeing revenue growth across all geographic regions with progress in developing economies especially strong. Pre-tax profit in the half-year to 30/4/08 rose 9% to £15.9m from £14.6m a year earlier on revenue that grew 12% to £125.9m. Excluding the effects of exchange rate movements, revenue rose 8%.

Music-inspired fashion retailer EBTM posted its first full-year operating profit as recent acquisitions transformed the scale of the business. Revenue for the year ending 30 April soared to £6.8m from £1.4m a year earlier, reflecting the boost from sales generated by the company’s two recent acquisitions.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,491.00p +6.20%
Amec (AMEC) 951.00p +4.79%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,266.00p +4.38%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,472.00p +4.05%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,270.00p +3.93%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,936.00p +3.81%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 932.00p +3.56%
Barclays (BARC) 340.50p +3.50%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,090.00p +3.48%
HBOS (HBOS) 326.75p +3.40%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Home Retail Group (HOME) 220.00p -2.87%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 592.00p -2.87%
Persimmon (PSN) 413.00p -1.96%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,611.00p -1.77%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 527.00p -0.94%
British Energy Group (BGY) 709.00p -0.91%
Aviva (AV.) 582.00p -0.85%
Next (NXT) 1,059.00p -0.75%
Carnival (CCL) 1,777.00p -0.73%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,080.00p -0.64%

FTSE 250 - Risers
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 140.00p +7.69%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 84.25p +7.32%
888 Holdings (888) 140.50p +6.44%
Assura Group (AGR) 108.00p +6.40%
Xchanging (XCH) 255.00p +5.59%
Provident Financial (PFG) 797.00p +5.56%
Aggreko (AGK) 653.00p +5.32%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 95.00p +5.26%
Informa (INF) 470.00p +5.20%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 188.00p +5.03%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Yell Group (YELL) 95.00p -7.77%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 90.50p -7.18%
UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCM) 73.50p -5.77%
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 270.25p -4.51%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 190.50p -4.39%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 67.50p -4.26%
Savills (SVS) 254.75p -3.69%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 73.75p -3.59%
DS Smith (SMDS) 129.50p -3.54%
HMV Group (HMV) 123.75p -3.13%

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