LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie is back down again, just barely above flat, as gains in the mining sector is being ofsett by life insurers.

Platinum miner Lonmin surged ahead after Xstrata made a £5bn offer to buy the group. Xstrata proposed a £33 per share cash offer, which is a 42% premium on Lonmin's share price yesterday. Lonmin branded the offer “opportunistic” and “unwelcome”.

As a result, miners were doing well with Vedanta Resources, Antofagasta, Anglo American and Rio Tinto higher. Lonmin’s FTSE 250 peer Aquarius Platinum also posted hefty gains.

Xstrata also said today that re-tax profits for the half-year fell slightly to $4bn from $4.47bn previously. Revenue rose to $16bn from $14.2bn

Kazakh miner Eurasian Natural Resources rises after it said second quarter production volumes across the group were higher than a year ago, while ore grades remained broadly consistent.

Broadcaster ITV is one of the losers after it slumped into losses of £1,537m versus profits of £105m for the half year and slashed dividends by 50% to 0.675p. The group said ITV Family net advertising revenue (NAR) was up 1% and viewing share rose 2.5%. ITV estimates that ITV NAR for September will be down 20% with the total market down 17%.

London Stock Exchange is higher after it saw a total of 24.3m equity trades carried out in the month, an increase of 35%, driven by strong trading in UK equities.

Insurer Old Mutual gives up some of yesterday’s gains despite posting strong results. The company lifted interim operating profit by 3% despite the depreciation of the South African rand, market turbulence and problems at its US business. Funds under management dropped 7% from 31 December 2007 to £259.4bn, although they were steady in the second quarter.

Insurer Standard Life was also down despite saying first half operating pre-tax profit rose 51%. Friends Provident, Legal & General and Aviva were also lower.

Shopping centre owner Liberty International slipped into losses due to bad debts and lease incentive write-offs. Liberty also said property values are unlikely to recover until stability returns to the banking sector. "Therefore we consider the process of falling property values is not yet complete," it said.

Landsbanki has lowered its recommendation on builders’ merchant Travis Perkin to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ on valuation grounds.

UBS has lowered its rating on electrical retail specialist DSG International to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ but raised its target price to 55p following a recent rally in the stock.

JP Morgan has raised its target price on the drug group Shire to 892p from 882p while keeping its ‘neutral’ rating on the stock, after last week’s ‘strong’ second quarter results.

WS Atkins said it has started the year well with performance in the first quarter in line with expectations. “Overall the markets in which we operate remain strong and the Group continues to make good progress,” it added.

Satellite communications firm and bid target Inmarsat saw revenue jump over 14% in the second quarter thanks in part to the economic resilience of the industrial and governmental markets.

Engineer Morgan Crucible said interim results were at the top end of expectations and expects further margin progression in the second half

Energy services group Hunting rallied to its best in over two months Wednesday on news it is to sell its Canada-based midstream oil and gas group, Gibson Energy, for C$1.27bn (£626m)

Financially troubled dry cleaning group Johnson Service has named John Talbot executive chairman, as Simon Sherrard retires following an eight year reign.

Chip licensing technology firm Arc International saw first half pre-tax losses widen and said it expects economic conditions to continue to provide a level of uncertainty in the market.

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