LONDON (ShareCast) - Record oil prices and a 200-point tumble on Wall Street weighed heavily on London Friday, sending the blue chip index to its lowest close since the end of October 2005.

Investors exited pubs group Enterprise Inns, the major banks and high street retailers as fears of a recession heightened, although commodity plays prevented further bloodshed.

Lloyds TSB had attracted early support on talk it had pulled out of bid talks with German lenders Dresdner Bank and Deutsche Postbank, but it soon joined the slide.

There were also hefty losses at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after Zurich Financial Services confirmed late Thursday it won’t bid for the bank’s insurance arm. Standard Chartered, Barclays and HSBC failed to avoid damage, but mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley attracted speculative support.

Recent posturing by Iran and ongoing worries about security in Nigeria sent oil prices to a fresh high Friday above $147 a barrel. The August contract leapt over $5 to $147.27 in New York. Tullow Oil, Cairn and BG benefited but fuel-hungry British Airways, FirstGroup and Carnival all turned lower.

Thomas Cook fell as talks to merge its Condor airline with Air Berlin ended. Cook said discussions continue with Air Berlin about the feasibility of an alternative transaction, but it is also pursuing a range of other available options for Condor.

Carphone Warehouse was a rare firm feature in a retail sector that sees Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer and Next suffer some of the biggest falls.

Down a division, housebuilders remained buoyant on talk of further short covering and as bargain hunters and vulture funds circle. Taylor Wimpey is sharply higher on reports that a US private equity firm plans to take a 30% stake, while Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon and Bovis are also ahead.

Support services group Serco tumbled after missing out on a £6.75bn five-year contract to clean up the Sellafield nuclear power plant. Serco was part of a consortium which lost out on the contract won by a rival group that included engineering firm Amec.

Magners cider firm C&C's revenue for the four months ended 30 June fell 8%. There was a 10% for its Cider division and growth of 3% for Spirits & Liqueurs. Group operating profit increased.

Elsewhere, French electronics group Thales is to buy encryption software specialist nCipher for 300p per share, a bid that values the group at £50.7m in total.

Inkjet printer group Xaar has slumped on a warning profits this year will be below forecasts and in line with last time.

Shares in Oxford Biomedica plummeted after the gene therapy group said the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) has advised it that a final stage clinical trial of its renal cancer treatment TroVax would not meet its defined goals.

Cadogan Petroleum advanced after the Ukraine focused oil and gas firm gave an update on its drilling activities, while loss-making security holographics group API has raised some cash through the sale of its former factory site in Shanghai, China.

Multimedia networks specialist Newport Networks slumped as it said it was “extremely disappointed” by recent trading, adding that selling the group is an option it is considering.

European online gaming group Gaming VC Holdings said trading in the first six months of the year has been slightly ahead of the board's expectations due to resilience in the German casino business.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,137.00p +8.60%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,844.00p +3.72%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 203.25p +3.28%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 866.50p +2.91%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 319.25p +2.41%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,427.00p +1.21%
John Wood Group (WG.) 428.75p +1.12%
Lonmin (LMI) 2,721.00p +1.00%
Man Group (EMG) 601.00p +0.75%
Amec (AMEC) 867.50p +0.75%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 302.50p -8.61%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 182.70p -8.60%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,341.00p -7.84%
Kingfisher (KGF) 91.80p -7.27%
Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 313.50p -6.49%
Whitbread (WTB) 957.00p -6.18%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 92.60p -5.89%
Barclays (BARC) 267.75p -5.89%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 275.50p -5.81%
Carnival (CCL) 1,436.00p -5.59%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,532.00p +8.11%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 37.75p +7.86%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,655.00p +7.33%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 71.25p +6.34%
Melrose (MRO) 142.50p +5.17%
Venture Production (VPC) 811.50p +4.98%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 47.50p +4.97%
Johnston Press (JPR) 33.50p +4.69%
Melrose Resources (MRS) 408.00p +2.90%
Salamander Energy (SMDR) 313.00p +2.62%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Punch Taverns (PUB) 225.00p -11.07%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 205.75p -9.66%
Rightmove (RMV) 222.00p -8.36%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 188.00p -8.18%
Debenhams (DEB) 31.75p -7.97%
Galiform (GFRM) 35.25p -7.84%
Rank Group (RNK) 60.00p -7.69%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 70.50p -7.54%
Serco Group (SRP) 384.00p -7.25%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 176.25p -7.24%

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