LONDON (ShareCast) - With the US market closed today for Labour Day, London stocks need to look elsewhere for encouragement to recover from a weak start. Prices are drifting back towards Friday's closing levels, but seem in no great hurry to complete the recovery.

Miners remain out of sorts, despite the advance in the price of gold. A report by the International Copper Study Group indicating that London Metal Exchange copper stocks are at their highest level since February has affected sentiment.

Kazakhmys, Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Vedanta are the main casualties in the sector.

Enterprise Inns is the worst performing blue-chip, however, as it is still under a cloud after two investment banks downgraded the pubs group last week. Mitchells & Butlers and JD Wetherspoon fall back in sympathy.

The London Stock Exchange is down after the Financial Times said the stock exchange will introduce deep fee cuts and incentives to defend it self against a wave of new entrants in equities trading.

Meanwhile, Turquoise, the rival trading platform to the London Stock Exchange, is confident of beating earlier forecasts that it would steal a 5 % market share by Christmas, its chief executive told The Times.

Petrofac is posting strong gains after the oil and gas facilities service provider and Mubadala Petroleum Services Company established a United Arab Emirates joint venture, Petrofac Emirates. Sector peer Wood Group is lower, however, while elsewhere in the oil area Cairn Energy is in the red, despite higher oil prices..

Insurance companies figure prominently among the few blue-chips on the climb, Legal & General, Old Mutual and RSA are the best performers in the sector.

Floor coverings specialist Headlam warned that due to the unpredictable nature of the current market place, it faces a challenge meeting its trading objectives for 2008. In the last four months to the end of August, “the markets have proved to be increasingly demanding, particularly in the UK,” it said as it posted half-year profits of £20.9m from £20.5m previously.

Market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres reiterated its rejection of WPP’s offer after the "low level of acceptances" from its shareholders for the offer. On Friday, WPP said it was extending its offer period to 12 September 2008 after it received only 8.61% of acceptances.

Five-a-side football centre operator Goals Soccer reported a 20% hike in half year pre-tax profit after it opened more centres. Pre-tax profit at the East Kilbride, Scottish based group rose to £3.7m in the six months to 30 June 2008 from £3.1m the year before. Sales rose 18% to £11.4m.

Annual profit remained flat at European patent and trade mark legal firm Murgitroyd Group while turnover increased 12.7%.

RCG remains confident about the second half as the biometrics and security solutions provider announced a 73% hike in profits during the first six months of 2008.

Engineering firm Bodycote is weaker after being downgraded to ``underperform'' from ``neutral'' by Merrill Lynch, on concerns over future earnings. Business publisher Informa is lifted, however, by being added to UBS’s “most preferred” list in the Swiss bank’s “short-term alpha preferences portfolio.”

Digital camera group Andor said trading has been very strong in the second half and expects year end result will significantly outperform expectations.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 669.00p +2.53%
Wolseley (WOS) 451.75p +1.52%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 101.90p +1.39%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 753.50p +1.28%
Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 402.25p +1.13%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 669.00p +0.98%
Old Mutual (OML) 98.40p +0.82%
Capita Group (CPI) 713.50p +0.78%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 151.90p +0.73%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,825.00p +0.72%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 291.75p -3.87%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,247.00p -3.48%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 255.00p -2.76%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,863.00p -2.35%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,782.00p -2.14%
John Wood Group (WG.) 466.75p -2.10%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 606.50p -2.10%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,920.00p -1.95%
Drax Group (DRX) 732.00p -1.94%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,685.00p -1.92%

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