LONDON (ShareCast) - London’s early morning surge proved too much for the LSE's systems, which stopped working just before 9am due to connectivity issues. Business now is being carried out between market-makers on an auction basis.

Prior to the unscheduled halt, stocks had posted stellar gains as the bail-out of troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by the US government gave the banking sector a boost.

HBOS led the way with Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered also posting big gains. Wolseley and Schroders, both of which have large US businesses, are also going well.

Drug groups GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are the two main exceptions to the early gains, with both registering falls, while Cadbury is also slightly lower.

Elsewhere another good showing by its discount chain Primark will help Associated British Food hit its targets this year. Like-for-like sales growth of 2% is expected at Primark in the second half despite weak trading in April when the weather was poor.

Oil and gas firm Venture Production has upgraded its estimate of proven plus probable reserves and resources.

Industrial conveyor belt maker Fenner's results for the year ended August will be at the top end of expectations, it says. Group operations have performed strongly in the final quarter of its 2008 year.

Expectations of improving sales momentum in a tough market prompted JP Morgan to lift its earnings estimates on JD Wetherspoon, retaining its ‘overweight’ stance on the pub group.

Confectionery maker Glisten saw full year profits fall to £2.71m in the year to June, from £4.81m, as one-off costs rose sharply. Underlying profits rose by 18% to £6.68m. Revenues rose from £58.6m to £73.8m. "The first 9 weeks of the current year has started with overall sales ahead 15% whilst showing no like for like growth," it said.

Speech recognition specialist Eckoh has won a “landmark deal” with a global financial services company to provide a pan-European telephonic customer services system. The multi-million pound contract runs for three years and is expected to start generating revenue in the first quarter of 2009.

Petrochemical firm HaiKe Chemical said it has won a major production contract from Sinopec Shandong Petroleum Branch (SSP) worth about 230m yuan.

Around 25m shares in software house Micro Focus changed hands on Monday as a result of a secondary placing organised by UBS.

Shares in cannabis-based medicine group GW Pharmaceuticals were on a high for the month in early trading Monday after positive test results for its Sativex treatment for multiple sclerosis sufferers.

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