London close: Late rally fizzles out

6th Jul 2009 16:37

Footsie made a brief attempt to lift itself into the blue in late trading but finished where it spent most of the day: firmly in negative territory.Declining metal and oil prices took their toll on resource stocks. Copper miners Lonmin and Kazakhmys are among the big fallers, despite both stocks being upgraded by Deutsche Bank from "sell" to "hold". Mining giant Rio Tinto was among the fallers despite further cutting its debt pile with the sale to US packaging firm Bemis of the US food packaging division of aluminium subsidiary Alcan for $1.2bn. Oil and related businesses were also down with Wood Group, Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil all off the pace.Defensive stocks were back in favour with tobacco companies British American and Imperial on the rise along with household goods firm Reckitt Benckiser.British Airways suffered a blow today as staff rejected plans to cut as many as 4,000 jobs and freeze pay. Over 2,000 employees got together at Kempton Race Course to vent their anger at proposals to freeze wages for two years and scrap some allowances and benefits.Budget airline easyJet carried 0.8% more passengers in June than the same time last year, although the load factor eased 0.6% to 86.3%. The increase wasn't as impressive as May's 1.8% jump, but the carrier still ferried almost 4.15m people around last month. Passenger numbers for the past 12 months are up 7.9% year on year.Price comparison web site Moneysupermarket.com is trading in line with expectations, with little change in performance levels since the company's statement in April. The company said in April that trading had stabilised after a sharp drop in revenues in the first quarter. JJB Sports is looking at raising up to £50m, including a possible share issue. It's mulling the sale of further non-core assets, an extension in the maturity date of its working capital facility beyond September 2010, and a possible placing and open offer. Utility company United Utilities has extended the AMP4 framework contract with a joint-venture comprising Costain, Atkins and Galliford Try to cover the next upgrade phase for the water industry. The extension for the AMP5 framework will run from 2010 to 2015 and consists of £400m of capital works in the north west of England, most of which will be improvements to existing water processing plants.Digital TV set-top box maker Pace is delivering the strong operating performance expected by the board. It said in April that it was seeing increased demand across many of the group's global markets, with the firm increasingly becoming the supplier of choice for many of its payTV operator customers.Housing repairs group Mears said the level of opportunities for its social housing division have never been higher after the group bagged three new contracts. The group's social housing division has been awarded £64m of new contracts, with options for a further £20m.Hazardous waste management firm Augean confirmed that it is no longer in talks with any party about a possible offer after One Fifty One pulled out of bid talks. Energy meter provider Bglobal shot up after it launched a new campaign for business customers seeking to comply with UK Government directives on carbon reduction.San Leon Energy says a "significant" discovery of natural gas in the Palo Pinto County, Regular (Gas) Field, District 07B, Texas, will produce at commercial rates.FTSE 100 - RisersReckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 2,852.00p +2.52%Rexam (REX) 291.50p +1.83%Cadbury (CBRY) 533.00p +1.81%British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,740.00p +1.75%Unilever (ULVR) 1,454.00p +1.75%Vodafone Group (VOD) 115.65p +1.72%British Land Co (BLND) 381.75p +1.60%Kingfisher (KGF) 185.40p +1.59%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 315.00p +1.53%Next (NXT) 1,544.00p +1.51%FTSE 100 - FallersLonmin (LMI) 1,060.00p -8.54%Xstrata (XTA) 606.00p -7.45%Rio Tinto (RIO) 1,885.00p -6.96%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 591.50p -6.11%Old Mutual (OML) 78.09p -5.48%Antofagasta (ANTO) 566.50p -5.35%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,300.00p -5.04%Anglo American (AAL) 1,628.50p -4.96%Fresnillo (FRES) 478.75p -4.35%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,287.50p -4.28%FTSE 250 - RisersBrown (N.) Group (BWNG) 220.00p +4.02%F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 68.50p +3.79%Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 389.75p +3.52%Mitie Group (MTO) 218.75p +3.18%SSL International (SSL) 526.50p +3.13%Tomkins (TOMK) 150.00p +2.92%Mouchel Group (MCHL) 169.75p +2.72%easyJet (EZJ) 273.75p +2.72%PayPoint (PAY) 508.00p +2.63%Bellway (BWY) 627.00p +2.62%FTSE 250 - FallersPunch Taverns (PUB) 89.00p -9.41%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 175.50p -7.99%Morgan Crucible (MGCR) 86.50p -7.98%Peter Hambro Mining (POG) 559.00p -6.83%John Wood Group (WG.) 247.50p -6.60%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 273.75p -5.77%National Express Group (NEX) 264.00p -5.71%Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 495.00p -5.26%FirstGroup (FGP) 331.75p -4.67%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 196.75p -4.49%