LONDON (ShareCast) - With mining stocks defecting to the red camp, Footsie failed to hold on the gains it sported for most of the day.

Marks & Spencer led the way down, shedding a quarter of its value, after it said first quarter UK like for like sales fell 5.3%, as it experiences “deteriorating consumer confidence levels and more challenging market conditions.”

Other retailers in the red included Next, Kingfisher, Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrison. These have received an additional blow in the form of the Bank of England’s first quarter housing equity withdrawal figures, which showed the amount of money homeowners are borrowing against the value of their homes slumped to its lowest level since 2001. Travel company Thomas Cook reacted badly to the Bank’s figures as well, as the prospect of homeowners re-mortgaging to pay for a dream holiday diminishes.

Mining stocks tracked commodity prices lower with ENRC the major casualty in the sector, followed by Antofagasta.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca surged ahead after wining its legal battle against two companies that want to market generic versions of Astra’s Seroquel drug. GlaxoSmithKline and Shire were also up in sympathy.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey lost around two-fifths of its value on news that it has failed to secure a deal with existing and potential investors to raise further equity capital. Finance director Peter Johnson has departed and it also said there will be no interim dividend.

Sector peers Barratt Developments and Persimmon also posted heavy losses, as did plumbers’ merchant Wolseley. Contractor Morgan Sindall, which yesterday warned of “increasingly challenging market conditions over the last quarter in the commercial property and open market affordable housing sectors”, again fell heavily today.

Irish building firm CRH expects to report a "high single digit percentage decline" in 2008's pre-tax profit as demand weakens in Europe and the US. The supplier of cement and bricks predicts a pre-tax profit of €600m for the six months ended 30 June 2008 compared with €670m the same time a year before.

British Airways has agreed to buy privately owned French airline L'Avion for £54m. The price covers the purchase of the airline and £26m of cash in its business. The company issues its June passenger statistics tomorrow.

Olfield services specialist John Wood has issued another upbeat statement forecasting a year of "strong growth".

Contractor Balfour Beatty's trading has continued strong with orders since the year-end up by £400m.

Shares in Ennstone plunged after the cement and aggregates group said it expects turnover and profit for the year ending 31 December to be materially below current market expectations.

Informa gained after the exhibitions group confirmed that it has received a 506p proposal from a private equity consortium led by Providence Equity. Informa said the consortium, which also includes The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman, had made a preliminary 506p per share bid on 26 June.

Trinity Mirror was on the slide again after Goldman Sachs cut its price target to 85p from 200p and advised investors to sell the stock. Sector peer Johnston Press also got the treatment from Goldman Sachs; the US investment bank cut its price target from 89p to 41p, while Citigroup downgraded the stock to “sell” from “hold”, with a 32p price target.

Oil explorer Oilex pleased the market with the results of its first test drilling of the basal sand secondary objective at the Cambay-19Z appraisal well.

Market research firm Taylor Nelson, which has pledged to merge with German outfit GfK, advanced on hopes that WPP will launch a bid

Nappy and protective clothing producer Fiberweb was firmer after it said the introduction of new lines and benefits from its cost reduction programme should have a positive impact on profitability in the second half.

FTSE 100 - Risers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,233.00p +4.84%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,146.00p +3.90%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 152.40p +3.53%
Old Mutual (OML) 90.90p +2.60%
BT Group (BT.A) 207.00p +2.48%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,300.00p +2.20%
Drax Group (DRX) 740.00p +1.93%
Aviva (AV.) 488.25p +1.82%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 186.80p +1.80%
Standard Life (SL.) 204.25p +1.62%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 240.00p -24.53%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,065.00p -9.36%
Wolseley (WOS) 328.00p -8.95%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 568.00p -7.94%
Next (NXT) 837.50p -7.92%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 290.00p -6.53%
Compass Group (CPG) 338.50p -6.10%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 362.00p -6.10%
ITV (ITV) 40.00p -6.10%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,108.00p -5.78%

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