London midday: Footsie subdued after buoyant start

1st Nov 2010 12:02

Footsie has failed to rediscover its early-morning buoyancy and sits in the blue by a few points.Among the laggards is Serco. The company, which carries out work for the government such as operating prisons and London's Docklands Light Railway, has taken a knock after it was forced to make a grovelling apology to suppliers following its demand for a 2.5% rebate on fees for work carried out this year. The demand was made in light of the government's cost-cutting efforts.Banks are higher as trading updates loom. Lloyds Banking Group is getting ready for tomorrow's statement with a 2% jump, while Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are also making up ground ahead of Friday's releases.Miners are also wanted, helped by strong manufacturing data from China. Rising metal prices have lifted Kazakhmys, Xstrata, Fresnillo, Lonmin, ENRC, Rio Tinto and Randgold onto the blue chip leader board. Smiths Group is higher on hopes the latest Al Qaeda bomb threat will increase demand for its cargo-scanning equipment. BG Group, the oil and gas giant due to declare third quarter results this week, is to get cracking on its Queensland Curtis Liquefied Natural Gas (QCLNG) project after receiving government clearance.Pumps manufacturer Weir is also lower despite expecting to beat full-year profit forecasts thanks to high demand for its equipment from the mining and oil exploration sector and stronger than expected aftermarket activity. The company said it continued to perform well in the third quarter, reporting improving order trends across the Minerals and Oil & Gas divisions. A bullish update from Elementis has the mid-cap speciality chemicals group up sharply. It expects to make more money than expected this year as a swell of activity in the oil and gas sector helped the speciality chemicals supplier lift sales by 11% in the third quarter.Underlying operating profit for paper and packaging group Mondi was on the up in the third quarter, both on the preceding two quarters and in comparison with the same quarter of 2009. despite only a marginal increase in turnover. Net debt was reduced to€1,536m at the end of September from €1,632m three months earlier.Xchanging, the business process outsourcing specialist, is still seeing pressure on activity levels due to economic conditions and some customers remain cautious in this uncertain market. For the full year, revenues and profits are in line with current market expectations. Falkland Islands oil explorer Desire Petroleum has failed to reach target depths in the first wireline logging run at its 14/15-1Z sidetrack well on the Rachel prospect. "Due to wellbore stability issues through the deviated section of the wellbore (forty degree hole inclination) it was not possible to reach the target depths in the first wireline logging run," it said in a short statement Monday.Chrysalis could be taken over after the record company confirmed it is in talks with a number of interested parties. Talk over the weekend was that veteran music tycoon and Chrysalis founder and current chairman Chris Wright was likely to do a deal with someone like Bug Music or Imagem Music.Cosalt, the struggling provider of safety equipment to the oil industry, confirmed this morning it has received an approach for its marine business. "These discussions are not sufficiently advanced for there to be any certainty that a transaction would be concluded or as to the price and other terms upon which it would be concluded," the firm said in a brief statement.Shares in oil explorer Faroe Petroleum fell after its announcement of a discovery off the Faroe Islands failed to impress the market. The company said that drilling at the Anne Marie prospect found hydrocarbons in 'thin sandy layers' that indicate 'robust' evidence of the presence of an active petroleum system.FTSE 100 - RisersSmiths Group (SMIN) 1,224.00p +2.68%Xstrata (XTA) 1,241.00p +2.60%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 45.75p +2.56%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,344.00p +2.13%Compass Group (CPG) 521.50p +1.96%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 70.14p +1.74%Carnival (CCL) 2,732.00p +1.56%BAE Systems (BA.) 349.90p +1.51%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,910.00p +1.46%WPP (WPP) 736.50p +1.45%FTSE 100 - FallersSerco Group (SRP) 573.00p -6.68%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,514.00p -2.82%Next (NXT) 2,242.00p -1.88%Capita Group (CPI) 753.50p -1.70%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 420.40p -1.64%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,167.00p -1.52%Anglo American (AAL) 2,873.50p -1.19%Amec (AMEC) 1,074.00p -1.10%Prudential (PRU) 624.00p -1.03%Essar Energy (ESSR) 534.00p -1.02%FTSE 250 - RisersElementis (ELM) 120.90p +5.59%Michael Page International (MPI) 490.60p +4.12%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 20.09p +3.56%Hays (HAS) 114.30p +3.44%BTG (BGC) 250.00p +3.31%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 334.60p +3.14%Henderson Group (HGG) 135.50p +3.12%Sports Direct International (SPD) 144.50p +3.07%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 371.30p +3.05%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 110.60p +2.98%FTSE 250 - FallersMelrose Resources (MRS) 299.50p -7.79%Rentokil Initial (RTO) 96.05p -3.08%AG Barr (BAG) 1,190.00p -2.78%Senior (SNR) 129.10p -2.49%ITE Group (ITE) 180.10p -2.44%Avis Europe (AVE) 220.90p -2.26%Kier Group (KIE) 1,296.00p -2.11%Redrow (RDW) 108.20p -2.08%Punch Taverns (PUB) 70.25p -2.02%Cranswick (CWK) 879.00p -1.79%