LONDON (ShareCast) - Equities have limped into positive territory in London, thanks largely to the strength of mining and oil stocks.

Huge write-downs on its land banks and the value of its George Wimpey brand pushed Taylor Wimpey into a £1.54bn first half loss. Investors were also disappointed that the company has not yet concluded its refinancing discussions with its banks. Rivals Barratt, Persimmon and Bovis are lower in sympathy.

Oil explorer Tullow Oil's underlying net profits more than doubled in the first half of the year to £126m, boosted by the higher crude price. Production is now expected to be between 68,000 and 70,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day for 2008.

Oil infrastructure specialist Petrofac saw interim net income surge by 57% to $121.2m from a year ago, helped by strong demand for new oil and gas facilities. Results for the full year will be at the top of end of expectations, it added.

Chile-based copper miner Antofagasta lifted first half earnings by 8.8% to a better than expected 80.4c, as output picked up and the copper price climbed. Copper and molybdenum markets should remain strong into next year, it added.

Times may be hard elsewhere, but business is booming for security group G4S, with both sales and profits well ahead in the first half of 2008. First half sales rose by 19.3% to £2.7bn (2007:£2.26bn) with organic growth of 10.5%.

Royal Bank of Scotland has unveiled unveil Stephen Hester, the chief executive of British Land, Arthur Ryan, the former chairman of Prudential Financial of the US, and John McFarlane, a former banker with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group as non-executives.

BT is considering the sale of its 31% stake in Tech Mahindra, the India-listed software services firm, says the FT.

German market research group GfK has decided not to pursue a £1.1bn bid for the UK market research company Taylor Nelson Sofres.

Pub owner Enterprise Inns is feeling flat after Cazenove downgraded the stock to “under-perform” from “neutral”. The 2009 earnings forecast has been cut by 9%.

Lower investment returns more than halved first half pre-tax profit at Brit Insurance, although the slump was pretty much what analysts had been expecting.

Regional newspaper group Johnston Group falls back after it axed its interim dividend as first half ad revenues plunged by 9.5% with little improvement expected over the remainder of the year.

Elsewhere in the publishing sector, adverse currency movements prevented Independent News and Media from declaring an increase in revenues in “challenging advertising markets” in the first. Meanwhile, newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror gets a leg-up from Goldman Sachs, which rates the shares a “buy”. The US investment bank also recommends purchasing British Sky Broadcasting.

Assets under administration increased by 9% in the year to end-June at investment manager Hargreaves Lansdown, despite a 16% fall in the FTSE All Share during the period.

Commercial property group Segro slumped into a first half loss as the problems in the property market prompted it to write off 11.5% from the value of its portfolio.

Ark Therapeutics shares climbed on news that a preliminary phase III trial of its Cerepro brain cancer drug has met its primary end-point.

• News Channel