LONDON (ShareCast) - London markets increased losses by close after a poor start on Wall Street compounded on the earlier pressure from housebuilders, property stocks and pub groups.

Goldman Sachs 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, which is expected to be relegated from the benchmark index on Friday, Barratt and Redrow were down, while plumbers’ merchant Wolseley suffered in sympathy.

Property giants British Land and Land Securities were 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 was marked lower despite being upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by Merrill Lynch.

Retail groups also paced losses with Next and Marks & Spencer falling deeper in the red as the day wore on.

Smith and Nephew was one of the few stocks to post good gains 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.

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 go up approximately 6% with eps from continuing operations in the range of 11.6p to 12.6p (2007: 7.5p).

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.

Highland Gold said it is proceeding with the construction of its Mayskoye project in the Chukotka region of Russia, following a review of the Mayskoye feasibility study.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 595.50p +2.85%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,102.00p +2.04%
International Power (IPR) 424.75p +0.89%
Compass Group (CPG) 367.75p +0.89%
United Utilities (UU.) 737.50p +0.68%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,108.00p +0.57%
Xstrata (XTA) 4,250.00p +0.43%
Centrica (CNA) 305.75p +0.41%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,088.00p -0.03%
Shire Ltd (SHP) 813.00p -0.25%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Persimmon (PSN) 379.50p -8.11%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 866.00p -7.08%
Next (NXT) 997.50p -5.81%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 402.25p -5.24%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 341.25p -5.21%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 420.00p -5.19%
British Airways (BAY) 225.75p -5.15%
Schroders (SDR) 949.50p -5.14%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 229.25p -4.97%
Wolseley (WOS) 475.50p -4.85%

FTSE 250 - Risers
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 149.00p +6.43%
PV Crystalox Solar (PVCS) 195.50p +3.99%
Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) 131.50p +3.54%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 355.00p +2.90%
Baring Emerging Europe (BEE) 1,015.00p +2.63%
Mouchel Group (MCHL) 451.00p +2.21%
Britvic (BVIC) 313.25p +2.20%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 435.00p +2.11%
Johnston Press (JPR) 70.75p +1.80%
Foreign and Colonial Eurotrust (FCU) 737.00p +1.66%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Redrow (RDW) 137.75p -17.51%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 167.00p -12.34%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 80.50p -11.05%
Bellway (BWY) 473.00p -10.42%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 342.75p -9.15%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 610.00p -9.02%
Cattles (CTT) 148.00p -8.92%
Informa (INF) 429.00p -8.72%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 190.00p -8.21%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 68.00p -7.80%

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