London afternoon: Losses pared

26th Nov 2010 14:39

After briefly dipping below 5600 this morning Footsie more or less halved its losses over the lunchtime session, though heavy falls are still being sustained by miners and banks.Portugal is currently going down the path trodden by Ireland and denying it is in need of a bail-out and, as with Ireland, the market is clearly sceptical. Bond yields in Portugal and other debt-plagued eurozone countries such as Ireland and Spain continued to climb amid worries over their ability to repay debts.Meanwhile, bellicose rhetoric from North Korea following the clashes earlier this week has helped keep nerves on edge and undermine the price of metal prices, even gold and silver.Miners retreat in line with metal prices with India's Vedanta and South American copper group Antofagasta among the worst hit. Press speculation that China may take more steps next year to cool down its economy has made investors even less disposed to invest in mining stocks. Banks are more concerned about the euro-zone problems than Korea or China; Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays are all sharply lower.Demand for some metals will double over the next 15-20 years and Rio Tinto, already "very well positioned" to take advantage, is spending billions on expansion just to make sure. The company said in a statement ahead of today's annual investor seminar that capital spending will probably be around US$13bn in the 18 months to December 2011, including $4bn this year and about $11bn in 2011. Mined copper production for 2010 is expected to be 661,000 tonnes.Power companies are the main point of interest after Ofgem launched a new investigation after fresh data revealed a sharp increase in profit margins for the 'big six' suppliers. The industry watchdog said the net margin on a standard dual fuel tariff customer has risen 38% from £65 in September to around £90 now. This includes the recent price hikes just announced by Scottish Power, British Gas and Scottish and Southern. BT is higher after announcing that it has sold part of its stake in the Indian IT Group Tech Mahindra. It also benefits from an upbeat broker note from Exane BNP Paribas, which lifts its price target on BT by 20% to 265p.Engineer Weir is another bright spot after Bank of America Merrill Lynch initiated coverage of the stock with an "overweight" rating and a target price of £20.Infrastructure specialist Balfour Beatty has reached agreement with the trustees of the company's pension fund to tackle the company's £375m pension fund deficit. The company and the fund's trustees have agreed a level of contributions which should see the deficit wiped out over a period of eight years, if events go as planned. The contributions will kick off with a one-off payment by Balfour Beatty of £40m, equivalent to £29m after tax, at the end of this year. Thereafter, annual deficit contributions of £48m (around £35m after tax) will be made, with effect from 1 April 2010.Cash is being raised by two Africa-focused oil and gas companies. Afren is to raise fresh funds through the issue of senior secured notes. Revenue in the first nine months of 2010 rose to $265.7m from $252.2m the year before. A loss of $7.6m last year turned into a $75.3m profit this time.BowLeven, meanwhile, is is to raise about £70m through a placing of up to 22m new shares, some 11% of the amount currently outstanding, to fund further drilling on its prospects in Cameroon.Chrysalis, the record company founded by current chairman Chris Wright in the late 60s, has been bought by German media giant Bertelsmann and private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). It's agreed to a figure of 160p a share in cash worth £107.4m, a 46% premium to the price before talks were confirmed at the start of the month.