London midday: Miners threaten Footsie streak

28th Jul 2009 12:14

If the Footsie is to rise for a record breaking 12th day in succession it looks like it is going to do so without the assistance of the mining stocks which are in retreat today. Software giant Sage is doing its bit for Footsie, staging a relief rally on results that were in line with market expectations though it warned that markets remain testing. The group said market conditions in the quarter ended 30 June 2009 have remained challenging but largely unchanged.Oil giant BP is slightly lower, however, after it announced second quarter replacement cost profits towards the top end of market expectations. Replacement cost profit rose to $3.14bn from $2.39bn in the first quarter, but was less than half the $6.75bn achieved in the second quarter of last year. Earnings per share rose to 16.76 cents from 12.75 cents in the first quarter.Miner Xstrata's leads the miners lower. The miner said ferrochrome production was 60% lower in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period last year, but the group saw increased production volumes of copper, thermal coal, mined nickel and zinc compared to the first half of 2008.Elsewhere in the mining sector gold miner Randgold Resources is to tap shareholders for almost £200m following a surge in profits in the three months to June. Randgold, which has seen its share price jump by nearly 70% over the past 12 months, will offer 5m shares to fund the feasibility studies and development of its Gounkoto and Massawa projects.South Africa-based bank Investec is another on the fund raising trail. It is to raise up to £90m through a placing of 22m new shares. The placing, representing 4.92% of the existing shares, will be used to fund the repurchase of existing debt at a discount to par. The price at which the shares will be placed will be determined at the end of the book-building process. Paper and packaging firm Mondi confirmed underlying opening profit for the second quarter of 2009 will be similar to the first quarter and said it had been further impacted by a special item charge of €80m in the half.Tough times in the semiconductor business sent both revenue and profits tumbling at chip designer ARM over the past three months, though it increased the interim dividend by 10%.Chemical firm Croda revealed a 14% drop in interim profit after making a loss at its industrial specialties division but said it is confident of making overall good progress for the rest of the year.Imperial Leather soap maker PZ Cussons whisked up a better than expected 16% rise in annual pre-tax profit and looks ahead with cautious optimism. Pre-tax profit rose to £88.8m for the year ended 31 May 2009 from £76.5m the previous year after a good performance across the group. Analysts had pencilled in pre-tax profit of around £87m. Sub-prime lender Provident Financial saw interim pre-tax profit rise 3.5% and said it expects to deliver continued growth for the year despite remaining cautious about new lending.Semiconductor group Wolfson cut losses in the last three months as sales picked up, but end-consumer demand visibility continues to be poor and order patterns volatile, it cautioned.The dark days of the credit crunch are fading for buy-to-let lender Paragon, which said that income for the April - June quarter was slightly ahead of expectations. Charges for bad debts were lower than the average quarterly charge for the first half of the financial year as a result of the more stable arrears position and the success of the company's new collections methodology.FTSE 100 - RisersSage Group (SGE) 194.90p +5.12%3i Group (III) 257.25p +1.78%Next (NXT) 1,680.00p +1.57%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,180.00p +1.46%FTSE 100 - FallersXstrata (XTA) 751.30p -4.49%Rexam (REX) 273.75p -3.78%Wolseley (WOS) 1,181.00p -3.20%Old Mutual (OML) 95.11p -3.11%