LONDON (ShareCast) - London paced losses in the afternoon as Wall Street started heavily lower after Goldman Sachs downgraded US investment banks.

The London Stock Exchange is continuing to increase losses. It unveiled plans to create a pan-European non-display trading platform in partnership with US investment bank Lehman Brothers. The multilateral trading facility (MTF), to be named Baikal, is for the execution of non-display orders.

Shares in Rolls-Royce fell back after JP Morgan cut its price target on the aero-engineer to 325p from 425p and kept its ‘underweight’ rating on the stock. Higher commodity costs, factors related to the dollar and falling aircraft orders are among the problems faced by Rolls-Royce, JPM said.

BSkyB took a knock after JP Morgan double-downgraded its rating on the satellite broadcaster to ‘underweight’ from ‘overweight’ and cut its target price on the stock to 560p from 700p.

Banks are also posting big losses with Lloyds and HBOS in the red, while oil and mining stocks are the only companies to muster some gains. Barclays also falls back despite Morgan Stanley upgrading its rating on the bank to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal-weight’.

Miners advance, led by Anglo American, on higher metals prices.Lonmin is also going well. British Airways and Carnival are down on oil price concerns.

Electrical retailer DSG International saw underlying pre-tax profit fall to £205.3m from £295.1m last year. "The economic backdrop continues to be difficult and the Group remains very cautious about consumer confidence in many of the markets in which it operates," it said.

Packaging maker DS Smith saw pre-tax profit rise 39% to £109m on revenue that increased 11% to £1.96bn but said the current financial year's operating performance will be affected by slowing demand and higher input costs.

Media and exhibitions group United Business Media is on track to deliver another good year, it said Thursday, with figures for the first half of 2008 set to be "modestly" ahead of market expectations.

Bus and rail firm Arriva has built on the positive start to the year flagged at April’s AGM, with interim revenue set to rise over 50% and significant earnings growth expected for the half and full year.

Regent Inns, owner of Walkabout sports bars and Jongleurs comedy clubs, today confirmed talks about a possible offer for group have ended after bidders struggled to find funding because of the credit crunch.

Kids TV group Entertainment Rights said "early indications for a strong fourth quarter are promising" despite a more difficult macro-economic environment.

Dyson continued its recent rally as the materials technology firm revealed its property portfolio has been revalued at £30m, some £24m more than before.

Energy efficiency solutions provider Eaga said trading to 31 May 2008 was in line with management expectations while prospects for future growth and continued diversification remain strong.

Marine safety maker Cosalt swung into a first half profit and announced the acquisition of Norway's Myhre-Maritime for £12m.

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