LONDON (ShareCast) - London’s top stocks are still deep in the red with Wall Street not providing much help by starting lower.

Banks and miners are the main hold-outs, refusing to conform to the market trend. Bradford & Bingley has shot up after it turned down an offer from Resolution last night to replace the cash injection agreed from US group TPG.

HBOS started higher but has fallen back as at least one hedge fund disclosed a short position yesterday.

Among miners Antofagasta gets a lift from an upgrade to “outperform” from “neutral” by Credit Suisse. Miners were also given a boost after Rio Tinto won a price increase for delivering iron ore to China on Monday. Ferrexpo is the biggest riser.

Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns are down heavily with traders saying companies with large debts are under intense scrutiny.

Elsewhere, positive broker comment on Shire and Compass fails to prevent the stocks dipping into the red. Goldman Sachs has upgraded pharmaceutical group Shire to “buy” while SG Securities has notched up its rating on catering company Compass.

Property company Liberty International suffers after Citigroup downgraded the stock to “sell” from “hold”. The US banking group is generally bearish on the property sector overall.

Travel group Thomas Cook has given travel groups a boost with its reduced first half losses and comment it remains confident of meeting expectations for the current year with trading for summer 08 strong in all major markets. TUI Travel rises in sympathy.

BG Group has launched a hostile $13.1bn bid for Australia's Origin Energy. The all-cash bid values Origin at A$15.50 a share and was rejected by Origin's board last month. Origin values its coal seam gas reserves alone at over $15bn.

Debenhams is steady after it brought its trading statement forward to quash rumours of financial difficulties. Like-for-like sales have grown by 1.0% in the past ten weeks. No changes have been made to supplier terms outside the ordinary course of business, it added.

Hotel group Millennium & Copthorne is higher after the disposal of a hotel in Korea.

Electricals retailer Kesa is not so cheery. The Comet owner saw underlying profits rise slightly to £128.8m from £126.5m in the year to April on revenues up from £3.96bn to £4.51bn. Jean-Noel Labroue, chief executive, commented: "The group delivered solid revenue and profit growth in overall positive market conditions, although these weakened over the last six months of the period." Broker Panmure Gordon responded to the results by downgrading the stock to “sell” from “neutral”. DSG International follows its sector peer lower.

More bad news for housebuilders came in the form of figures from the British Bankers’ Association which revealed mortgage approvals by its members in May fell to 27,968 from 34,752 in April. Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments are the big losers in the sector.

Local newspaper publisher Johnston Press received valid acceptances in respect of 311,058,684 new Johnston Press ordinary shares, representing approximately 97.25% of the total.

Plant hire group Ashtead and consultant RPS are going well after strong results this morning while Bunzl says trading is in line with expectations and revenue growth similar to 2007.

Russia-focused oil producer Imperial Energy is wanted after it said it remains on track to deliver its target of 25,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) by end of 2008.

Shares in Pure Wafer collapsed after the silicon wafer reclaim specialist said it expects to breach its banking covenants for the period to 30th June 2008.

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