London afternoon: FTSE 250 stocks take a bashing

7th Apr 2011 15:12

The blue-chip index moved into positive territory over the lunch time trading session as the Bank of England removed all doubt about its current focus on the health of the economy, rather than the inflation risk, and kept its key lending rate unchanged.The European Central Bank, however, stuck to its script and raised its key lending rate by a quarter of a point, as expected.Leading shares are mixed, with the retail sector coming back down to earth following a brief respite yesterday when M&S unexpectedly posted quarterly sales growth.Carpetright is sharply lower after another warning on profits. The flooring and carpet retailer says it now expects pre-tax profits for the year to 30 April to be in line with those achieved in 2009, when trading was hit hard by the economic crisis. It had previously said that profits for the current year would be below 2010 but ahead of 2009.Bicycle and car part retailer Halfords is stuck in reverse after it predicted a continuing tough trading environment as it posted a sharp fall in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 1 April. Like-for-like sales from the company's retail outlets were down by 6.8% from the same period the previous year, resulting in a 5.5% fall over the full year. Strength in the banking sector is offsetting retail weakness. RBS, Lloyds, HSBC. Standard Chartered and Barclays post gains following news that two of their European peers, Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Germany's Commerzbank, are planning to raise funds.Talvivaara Mining is well off the pace after it lowered annual production guidance to take into account longer than previously anticipated maintenance breaks. The company believes it realistic to anticipate a production shortfall of 5,000-8,000 tons of nickel from the previous guidance and so has revised full year production guidance for 2011 to 22,000-28,000 tons of nickel. Online gaming colossus bwin.party could be ready to cash in its chips in Germany after it slammed new tax proposals outlined by German states yesterday.Online betting exchange Betfair is probably none too pleased about the new proposals either, as Germany intends introducing a 16.67% levy on money staked on sports wagers. In the first quarter of 2011 international recruitment firm Hays, also lower today, saw like-for-like (LFL) growth in net fees in every region except the UK & Ireland, where spending cuts in the public sector are starting to bite. For the group as a whole, fees were up 16% on a year earlier on a LFL basis. "Overall, 21 countries grew net fees by more than 20%," revealed Alistair Cox, chief executive of Hays.Electronics and maintenance products supplier Electrocomponents expects pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March to be marginally above previous expectations after strong international sales helped drive sales above £1bn for the first time in the group's history. Anglo-Swedish drugs leviathan AstraZeneca has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its thyroid cancer treatment Vandetanib.Plastics group Victrex reported record half year sales volume of around 1,434 tonnes, an increase of 22% from the same time last year. The group, which makes and sells polymers, said the record 752 tonnes sold in the second quarter of this year was 10% above the 682 tonnes sold in the first quarter, "reinforcing the positive underlying trends in the Victrex Polymer Solutions business."Financial trading systems supplier FFastFill expects to report 'in line' results for the year ended 31 March, after making further progress in the implementation of its global 'Software as a Service' (SaaS) strategy.Skin treatments supplier Sinclair Pharma and speciality drugs group IS Pharma have reached agreement on a merger that was announced in February.Oil rig services group Lamprell has confirmed rumours that it is in talks to acquire Norwegian peer Maritime Industrial Services (MIS), pressuring shares lower on Thursday afternoon.---jh