LONDON (ShareCast) - The Footsie suffered a treble-digit slump as it wrestled all day to keep its head above 5500. All but a handful of leading stocks participated in the general decline.

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

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 group Enterprise Inns fell back in sympathy, with the extent of the decline worsened by speculation that the stock will be dumped from the FTSE 100 in the next end-quarter reshuffle. Iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo was another heavy faller for similar reasons; the company secured promotion to the benchmark index at the last Footsie reshuffle but since then has seen its share price slump from above 400p to below 250p.

Hotel and pub restaurant group operator Whitbread was marked nervously lower ahead of the company’s trading statement tomorrow.

Cable & Wireless surrendered early gains. Insurer Prudential has agreed to take responsibility for just over £1bn of C&W’s 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. The upgrade did not stop the stock from being one of the major fallers on the day.

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 was weak, with investors unimpressed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s attempts to offer assistance to the slumping housing market and hard pressed mortgage payers. Barclays moved 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.

Shares in communications technology group Spirent slumped after UBS announced an accelerated book-build secondary placing of up to 75m Spirent shares. The share price recovered a little after the placing was subsequently withdrawn.

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.

The economic downturn has hit real-time data capture systems designer Belgravium Technologies harder than the management expected. Profit before tax virtually disappeared, falling to £72,000 from £1m in the first half of 2007.

Churchill China headed back towards recent lows after the ceramic tableware maker reported a drop in half-year profit and said it remains uncertain about the full year result.

FTSE 100 - Risers
BAE Systems (BA.) 485.25p +0.47%
British Energy Group (BGY) 735.00p +0.41%
3i Group (III) 923.50p +0.16%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 161.80p -0.06%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 750.00p -0.07%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 772.00p -0.19%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,489.00p -0.27%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 883.75p -0.42%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,417.00p -0.44%
BT Group (BT.A) 173.00p -0.46%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 211.25p -15.42%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 280.25p -8.79%
BG Group (BG.) 1,047.00p -6.43%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,112.00p -6.08%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,605.00p -4.66%
International Power (IPR) 367.75p -4.54%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 100.10p -4.39%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 355.00p -4.05%
Whitbread (WTB) 1,120.00p -3.95%
FirstGroup (FGP) 609.50p -3.94%

FTSE 250 - Risers
DSG International (DSGI) 57.00p +8.06%
Mecom Group (MEC) 24.50p +6.52%
Premier Foods (PFD) 94.25p +6.50%
GKN (GKN) 254.00p +3.36%
Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 619.50p +3.25%
Halma (HLMA) 206.25p +3.12%
Signet Group (SIG) 66.75p +3.09%
Catlin Group (CGL) 339.75p +2.80%
Grainger (GRI) 234.00p +2.41%
Heritage Oil (HOIL) 219.75p +2.21%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Punch Taverns (PUB) 278.25p -12.15%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 75.00p -9.37%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 55.25p -9.05%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,184.00p -7.43%
Southern Cross Healthcare Group (SCHE) 142.00p -6.89%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 70.50p -6.62%
Cattles (CTT) 120.00p -6.43%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 318.75p -6.25%
Aricom (ORE) 41.75p -6.18%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 154.00p -5.81%

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