LONDON (ShareCast) - A volatile day for Footsie with stocks ending slightly lower as investors sifted through a raft of company news today.

Investors fled BT following a 1% increase in first quarter underlying core earnings, just below forecasts, although the telecoms giant kept full year guidance unchanged. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before specific items and leaver costs inched up to £1.433bn.

Unilever also fell back after the food and household goods giant reported a drop in profits as it felt the impact of restructuring costs, higher taxes and the strong euro.

Brewer SABMiller slipped as well after reporting a 1.6% drop in underlying beer volumes in the three months ended 30 June, enough to knock the froth of its share price. Lager volumes were down 3% in South Africa.

HBOS rallied though despite seeing pre-tax profit slump 72% during the first half to £848m due to £1.1bn of negative fair value adjustments. Underlying profit before tax was 51% lower at £1.45bn, while Impairment losses increased by 36% to £1.3bn. Investors thought it could’ve been worse.

There were also gains for Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier which remains on track to deliver its goals for the year. Interim pre-tax profit rose to £350m from £308m on revenue up to £1.97bn from £1.79bn.

Miners were helped by strong metal prices and figures from Antofagasta. It ramped up total copper production by 4% to 119,000 tonnes in the second quarter from the previous three month period and by 12% on the year before.

Anglo American announced record half year underlying earnings of $3.5bn despite a 9.7% drop in revenue to $17.9bn. It expects a strong second half. BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys and Eurasian Natural Resources are among the leaders.

AstraZeneca and Shire, the UK’s second and third ranked drug firms, both increased full year guidance. Astra core annual earnings per share by 15 cents following better than expected second quarter numbers, while Shire’s second quarter revenue leapt 35%. It upgraded guidance for 2008 revenue growth to at least 20% from mid to high teens previously.

Carphone Warehouse expects an extra 200,000 to 250,000 broadband customers this year, cut from previous forecasts of 400,000. Revenues at its UK fixed-line telecoms business are seen broadly flat versus the 4-5% growth.

The fourth quarter saw BSkyB add 92,000 net new customers, well ahead of forecasts, with another 200,000 broadband customers also better than expected. Year adjusted operating profit was £752m on revenue up 9% to £4.95bn, in line with forecasts.

Shell's second quarter earnings rose 5% to $7.9bn on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, with reported income 33% higher at $11.6bn. Boss Jeroen van der Veer called it "another set of competitive earnings". He said: "Good operating performance, combined with increased oil and gas prices, offset the impact of weaker downstream conditions in the second quarter 2008."

Centrica turned lower as operating profit from continuing operations fell 19% in the six months ended 30 June to £992m, although it called its interim a “good” set of results in tough market conditions.

Prudential reported a "strong" half year in challenging conditions, with new business Annual Premium Equivalent sales up 12% to £1.5bn and European Embedded Value (EEV) new business profit up 11% to £602m.

Meanwhile, Next is constrained by tough trading conditions, SG Securities said as it lowered its recommendation on the fashion retailer to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’. Morgan Stanley cut its target price on Schroders, while RBS lifted its target price on Arm Holdings.

Lucky Strike and Benson & Hedges maker British American Tobacco rolled out a 16% hike in half year profit after strong demand from emerging markets such as South Africa and Russia.

D1 Oils rallied to its highest since early May, gaining a third of its value as the biofuels company said its £14.9m placing will allow it to remain cash positive through to the end of 2009.

A 28% drop in production during the first quarter at Avocet Mining sent the Indonesia and Malaysia focused gold miner tumbling Thursday.

FTSE 100 - Risers
HBOS (HBOS) 290.50p +7.10%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,055.00p +6.84%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 576.50p +5.97%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 787.50p +5.92%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,499.00p +5.56%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 578.50p +4.52%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,740.00p +3.98%
Shire Ltd (SHP) 831.50p +3.68%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,468.00p +3.26%
ICAP (IAP) 502.50p +2.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BT Group (BT.A) 173.90p -11.99%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,388.00p -8.08%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,049.00p -4.90%
ITV (ITV) 42.60p -4.27%
Next (NXT) 954.50p -4.12%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 295.25p -3.51%
Tesco (TSCO) 360.40p -3.46%
Cadbury (CBRY) 599.00p -3.39%
British Airways (BAY) 255.25p -2.95%
Sage Group (SGE) 195.90p -2.90%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,559.00p +8.66%
CSR (CSR) 288.00p +5.79%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,164.00p +5.43%
RPS Group (RPS) 315.00p +5.00%
United Business Media (UBM) 566.00p +4.91%
Salamander Energy (SMDR) 282.00p +4.83%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 87.75p +4.78%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 307.50p +4.68%
Genus (GNS) 802.50p +4.56%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 390.75p +4.34%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Laird (LRD) 290.00p -13.95%
Telecity Group (TCY) 238.00p -11.85%
Yell Group (YELL) 70.50p -9.03%
Mecom Group (MEC) 20.75p -7.78%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 39.25p -7.65%
Johnston Press (JPR) 46.00p -7.54%
Persimmon (PSN) 288.75p -6.93%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 396.25p -5.65%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 64.50p -5.49%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 52.00p -5.45%

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