LONDON (ShareCast) - It's another poor day for housebuilders, with pub groups and property groups also under pressure after broker downgrades.

Goldman Sachs has piled on the agony for housebuilders with a warning that it could take three years for the current downturn to ease. That follows credit rating agency Fitch's downgrade of Taylor Wimpey's debt to junk status yesterday. Persimmon, Barratt and Redrow lead the fallers but the sector as a whole is under the cosh, while plumbers’ merchant Wolseley suffers in sympathy.

Property giants British Land and Land Securities are also weak. Credit Suisse lowered its rating on Landsecs to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’ and lowered its price target to 1,529p from 1,934p. Sector peers Great Portland and SEGRO were also downgraded.

Enterprise Inns moves lower after ABN Amro, fearful of an economic downturn in 2009 and 2010, cut its rating on the tenanted pub operator to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’. The broker also downgraded Pitcher and Piano pub chain owner Marston’s and the cruise operator Carnival to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’.

Mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse is marked lower despite being upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by Merrill Lynch.

Smith and Nephew is among the day’s few modest risers after UBS raised its rating on the medical devices company to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’, saying its shares have been oversold since the discovery of bad selling prices in an acquisition resulted in $100m in lost sales.

Defensive favourites such as household goods and foods group Unilever and tobacco company Imperial Tobacco see a small amount of support, as do utilities and power companies.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's first quarter sales rose by 8.1% or by 4.5% excluding fuel, slightly below forecasts. Like-for-like sales for the period rose by 7.3% and by 3.4% without fuel. "The environment will remain challenging, but we operate from a strong financial position and our expectations for the full year remain unchanged," chief executive Justin King commented.

Financial software group Misys forecasts revenues for the year to May will up approximately 6% with eps from continuing operations in the range of 11.6p to 12.6p (2007: 7.5p). Operating profit is forecast to rise by 36% with orders up 8% to about £261m. The firm added that the credit crisis to date has not affected its expectations.

Woolworths's chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones is standing down from the group after six turbulent years. It also issued another cautious trading statement with group sales from the combined Retail and Entertainment Wholesale and Publishing businesses down 1.9% for the 19 weeks to 14 June. "Aggressive price action" will inevitably impact the margin rate during the first half of the year, it added.

Contractor Mouchel's trading performance so far this year is on track with demand still good demand despite recent economic pressures generally in the UK. The outlook for the business remained promising, it added.

Exhibitions group Informa is lower despite reports a private equity consortium led by Providence has made an approach. Merger talks between Informa and UBM ended yesterday.

Construction giant Carillion said its joint venture has achieved financial close on a £208m Nottingham Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contract.

PV Crystalox Solar, which makes silicon wafers for the solar electricity industry, has won a deal with newly formed Intel spin-off SpectraWatt.

Industrial fastenings distributor Trifast reported underlying pre-tax profit bang in line with predictions, while operating margin rose to a seven year high.

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