London close: Footsie retreats from 21-month high

7th Apr 2010 17:18

An attempted rally by blue-chip stocks petered out in the final hour of trading and the Footsie finished close to its low for the day.Miners were a drag on the index throughout the day though gold miner Randgold Resources was a bright spot.Hedge fund giant Man was the best performer. Last night the company disclosed that the net asset value of the AHL fund had risen 3.81% last week, prompting brokers Execution Nobel to rush out a 'buy' note, while Shore Capital has also chipped in with some upbeat commentary. Kingfisher got a lift from a bullish broker note from Charles Stanley, which upgraded the DIY chain to 'accumulate' from 'hold'. Fellow DIY retailer Home Retail got dragged higher in Kingfisher's slipstream. Rolls-Royce roared higher on news that it has won a £690m service contract extension with the UK Ministry of Defence to support the Royal Air Force's fleet of Tornado jet fighters. Mobile phone giant Vodafone is to launch a customised version of Opera, the popular Internet browser, to run on low-cost handsets on 2G networks in a move aimed at developing markets. UBS made a quick tour through the UK properties sector and revised its ratings for Land Securities and Hammerson upwards, while British Land was moved the other way. Among second-liners electrical parts distributor Electrocomponents was on a charge after seeing sales put on a growth spurt in February and March. The company thinks profit before tax in the year to 31 March 2010 will be around £73m, compared to market expectations of around £68m.Heritage Oil went the other way on a mixed report from Kurdistan. Heritage Oil is to dig its Miran West-2 test well in Kurdistan deeper than originally planned after results proved much less productive than its first test well, though it says it has identified areas that could add significantly to reserves.Food sales from its managed pubs continued to lead growth at pub group and brewer Marston's in the half year to April 3. The company remains on track to meet expectations for the full year.Specialist insurer and reinsurer Beazley has announced its preliminary estimate of its exposure to claims arising from the Chilean earthquake and the European windstorm Xynthia. The company expects the losses from the earthquake to be in the range of $55m to $75m, though uncertainty still surrounds the full scale of the losses.Power peripherals supplier Chloride enjoyed a satisfactory fourth quarter and expects to meet expectations for the year to March. Orders at the year-end were 16% higher than the previous year.Balfour Beatty has announced its second contract win in as many days, and this time it is for work on a terminal at Dallas Fort Worth airport. The infrastructure specialist contractor said a joint venture of which it is a member, along with Azteca Enterprises, H J Russell and CARCON Industries, has been selected to carry out preconstruction and construction services for the seven-year terminal development programme at the airport.Losses widened at PetroLatina in 2009 as the Colombia-focused oil and gas group continued working to increase production. The company posted a pre-tax loss of $12.8m, compared with $4m the previous year, as revenue rose to $13.8m from $7.8m.Shares in Healthcare Enterprise jumped after the healthcare group reported that one of the companies in which it has shares has been given formal approval to sell an artificial insemination device in the US.Shares in Irish infrastructure and utilities services group Siteserv jumped after it said it has signed a contract worth up to €60m to become the sole services provider for the installation, maintenance and testing of domestic boilers and a range of energy efficient products and services to energy provider Bord Gáis.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 267.40p +6.11%Kingfisher (KGF) 229.80p +2.77%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,031.00p +2.63%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,420.00p +2.17%Next (NXT) 2,253.00p +1.99%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 628.00p +1.78%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 333.50p +1.65%Home Retail Group (HOME) 279.30p +1.56%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 663.50p +1.38%Centrica (CNA) 300.60p +1.25%FTSE 100 - FallersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,213.00p -4.11%Pearson (PSON) 1,007.00p -4.10%Cairn Energy (CNE) 427.00p -2.98%British Land Co (BLND) 477.00p -2.73%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,275.00p -2.55%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,068.00p -2.38%Burberry Group (BRBY) 708.00p -2.21%British Airways (BAY) 238.20p -2.10%Inmarsat (ISAT) 747.50p -2.10%BG Group (BG.) 1,162.50p -1.90%