LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie remains in the doldrums following Wall Street’s poor overnight performance with US futures pointing to another dip when markets there open today.

Weak trading at pub group Punch Taverns has more than offset any feel good factor engendered by the weaker oil price and pulled the rug from under the leisure sector.

Enterprise Inns leads the FTSE 100 lower after a gloomy statement from rival Punch Taverns. Punch has axed its final dividend to conserve cash. Plans to convert to a REIT have also been shelved on cost grounds. "The main priority for the use of cash is to support the repayment of the group's convertible bonds," Punch said. Fellow pub groups Mitchells & Butlers and JD Wetherspoon are also under the weather, as is hotel and pub restaurant operator Whitbread.

Oil groups are holding steady despite renewed weakness in the crude price and talk that it could go below $100 per barrel. Tullow is the best performer in the sector after better than expected test drilling results from its Ugandan wells, jointly owned and operated by Heritage Oil.

Meanwhile, airline companies British Airways and easyJet celebrate the slide in oil prices.

Cable & Wireless is in the red now despite being the best performer earlier after insurer Prudential agreed to take responsibility for just over £1bn of pension assets and 5,000 scheme members from the telecoms giant.

Shares in Vodafone fell after Credit Suisse lowered its rating on the mobile phone company to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’, citing concerns about the company’s performance in Spain and competition from Apple’s iPhone.

BG Group remains one of JP Morgan’s top picks in the integrated oils sector despite the broker trimming its price target on the stock by 20p to 1,480p.

JP Morgan has raised its rating on the shopping centre owner Liberty International to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight’ in a review of the European property sector.

The banking sector is weak, with investors underwhelmed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s attempts to offer assistance to the slumping housing market and hard pressed mortgage payers. Barclays is lower after being downgraded from “hold” to “sell” by the Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS estimates Barclays has a capital shortfall of between £4.9bn and £7.5bn.

Electricals retailer DSG's like-for-like sales tumbled 7% in the 16 weeks ended 23 August 2008. Total group sales rose 4% in sterling terms and fell 2% in local currency. The trading environment remains challenging across Europe with gross margins across the group down 0.75% year on year. "We remain very cautious about the consumer outlook," DSG said.

Profit fell by more than a quarter at jewellery retailer Signet during the first half of 2008 as sales of its rings and necklaces failed to match last year’s effort. The H Samuel and Ernest Jones group saw like for like sales for the 26 weeks ended 2 August drop 3.4%, as flagged early last month, and total sales fall 0.6% to $1.59bn, knocking pre-tax profit by almost 28% to $78.7m.

Communications technology group Spirent is sharply lower after UBS announced an accelerated book-build secondary placing of up to 75m Spirent shares. The seller was not identified.

Engineer Hamworthy has discovered accounting errors related to stocks at its inert gas systems business, with an overstatement in inventories of £4.6m over a number of years. "The board believes that this is an isolated error," the statement said.

Packaging group DS Smith says overall trading in the first quarter of financial year 2008/09 has been in line with management's expectations with the total operating result in line with this time last year.

James Bond gadgets group QinetiQ has been awarded a maritime facilities contract by the Ministry of Defence worth more than £150m over the next 15 years.

Speciality metal producer and recycler Metal-Tech crumpled today on news that the weaker dollar versus the Israeli Shekel will mean interim pre-tax profits falling "significantly" below expectations.

Falling property prices have plunged A&J Mucklow into a full year loss and it said the challenging market conditions mean a further drop in values is possible.

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