London afternoon: Footsie undermined by Chinese rumours

20th Jan 2010 14:24

The eight biggest fallers among FTSE 100 constituents are all miners, as the sector comes under the cosh on reports that China has told its banks to stop lending in an attempt to cool its runaway economy.Antofagasta, Xstrata, Lonmin, Eurasian Natural Resources and Vedanta were all nursing losses of 4% or more at the end of the lunchtime trading session.Elsewhere in the mining sector BHP Billiton set half-year production records for petroleum, iron ore, nickel and zinc, but expects 'some degree of volatility' in the short term outlook for its commodities.Pharmaceutical companies are the best performers after Republican Scott Brown won a shock victory in the race for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts. It puts a question mark over President Obama's planned healthcare reforms as it means the Democrats have lost their ability to prevent the Republicans employing delaying tactics in the Senate.. Shire, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are all higher. Cable & Wireless is going well on a Citigroup upgrade to buy. It sees value in the telecoms firms legacy Caribbean businesses that are soon to be demerged.Consumer electronics retailer Kesa Electricals saw like for like sales revenue dip slightly year on year in the final two months of 2009. Total sales revenue in the period from 1 November to 8 January was up 1.3% from a year earlier, or 0.7% higher in local currency, but like for like sales in local currency were 0.3% lower, largely due to a tail off at the group's Comet stores. Charles Scott, chairman of William Hill since 2004, is to stand down as the bookmaker reported healthy trading in the final three months of 2009. Gross win margins for the full year returned to the normal 17-18% range. Group net revenue rose 6% in Q4 and is expected to be up 4% for the full-year. EBIT should be £250m, it says.Bid speculation is spurring buying interest in pest control and laundry group Rentokil Initial, though old hands in the City have suggested that takeover talk regarding Rentokil, rather like Halley's Comet, comes round on a periodic basis. Oil explorer Soco is looking to raise over £100m through a placing to help fund an 'exceptionally active' drilling programme this year. The firm will place about 7.2m shares or 9.6% of its shares in issue through a book-building sale today. Latin America-focused miner Hochschild Mining hailed a record year of production as it announced output levels for the final quarter of 2009. It reported production of 28.2m attributable silver equivalent ounces in 2009. Boss Miguel Aramburú has targeted 29m silver equivalent ounces for this year.Britain's recent cold snap hit sales at pubs group JD Wetherspoon as customers stayed in the comfort of their home. Sales at pubs open for more than a year fell by 0.3% in the 12 weeks to 17 January, with the last two weeks being affected by adverse weather conditions, the group said.The value of the portfolio of West End of London property specialist Great Portland Estates continued to recover in the final quarter of 2009, with the pace of recovery picking up from the preceding quarter. The value of the portfolio at the end of 2009 was up 8.7% from the end of September; in the July to September quarter the portfolio value had risen 4.2%.Retinal imaging company Optos said total pay per patient revenues was unchanged in the three months to 31 December 2010 from the same quarter a year before. The shares are sharply higher, however, after the company aid that it had experienced strong contract renewal rates at 85% compared to 79% a year ago.Oxford Instruments performance from October to January was in line with the board's expectations and above the same period in the prior year, aided by the effects of the restructuring programme implemented last year and favourable currency movements. Research markets remain robust, the high tech tools and systems provider said.Angus Forrest, training and e-learning group Intellego's chairman, says the firm has won a material order with a leading retail specialist to provide productivity improvement services for the next 12 months. Order intake in the third quarter of the year ending 31 March 2010 was £898,000.