London midday: RBS unit sued for $8bn

29th Jan 2010 12:10

After a mid-morning dip blue-chips are on the rise again, though it is not the sort of advance that is likely to change investors' view that January was a month to forget.For once, the miners are not moving in lock step with each other. Sector giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are firmer, while gold miner Randgold gets a boost from Goldman Sachs, which has raised its price target on the stock a tad from £60.34 to £60.76. Silver miner Fresnillo is the worst performing FTSE 100 stock, however, while Kazakhmys is also on the slide, despite Goldman Sachs reiterating its view that the stock is the best investment proposition in the sector.BP has appointed the former chief executive of mining giant BHP Billiton to the oil company's board as a non-executive director. Paul Anderson, who'll take up his role on 1 February, replaces Sir Tom McKillop, the former chairman of RBS who was forced to step down as a non-executive director of BP last year.FBR Capital Markets has been running its rule over UK banks and has cut its price target for HSBC from 893p to 800p 'to reflect a similar level of conservatism surrounding insurance capital as we have with Lloyds Banking. Standard Chartered also gets its price target trimmed by FBR, from 1574p to 1493p.Both stocks shrug off the FBR broker note to make headway but part-nationalised bank Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is taken down a peg or two on the news that a property developer in the Philadelphia area has sued RBS subsidiary Citizens bank for $8bn, claiming the bank reneged on financing commitments for a redevelopment project.Pubs operator Marston's said trading over the 16 week period to 23 January has been encouraging notwithstanding the poor weather in January. The group said the more positive trading momentum it reported last month continued over the important Christmas and New Year festive period. Homebuyers started 2010 in keen fashion, pushing prices up 1.2% this month, according to the Nationwide Building Society. The data sparked a rush to buy shares in Rightmove, the property web site firm, but it has done nothing for housebuilders such as Bovis and Barratt, both of which are lower. South Africa-focused bank Investec's operating fundamentals 'remain mixed' with activity levels below historic trends despite recent stability in financial markets. Net operating income before impairments on loans and advances rose by 1% in the nine months to end December.Support services and asset management firm Mitie said it has performed well since 1 October and has had a good start to the second half of the year. Earnings continue to grow in line with management expectations and the group said it is confident that earnings for the full year will also meet forecasts.Hull-based telecoms group KCOM has signed a five year contract with Phones4U to consolidate all the mobile phones retailer's telecoms services into a single source.Board room upheaval at social housing firm Connaught has hit the share price. Chef executive Mark Davies, who had planned to leave the company at the end of Connaught's financial year, will now be leaving at the end of this week to be replaced by Mark Tincknell, who will give up the executive chairman role. Senior independent director Tim Ross will take over as non-executive chairman on a temporary basis while the company looks for someone to take on the role permanently. FTSE 100 - RisersWhitbread (WTB) 1,398.00p +2.49%International Power (IPR) 323.90p +2.02%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 673.20p +2.00%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,686.50p +1.44%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,096.00p +1.39%Resolution (RSL) 80.05p +1.33%Bunzl (BNZL) 624.50p +1.30%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,753.50p +1.27%Capita Group (CPI) 721.50p +1.26%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,209.00p +1.26%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 662.00p -2.22%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 31.91p -2.03%TUI Travel (TT.) 259.20p -2.00%ICAP (IAP) 374.40p -1.91%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,382.00p -1.61%Prudential (PRU) 579.00p -1.53%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 75.55p -1.50%SEGRO (SGRO) 313.20p -1.35%Man Group (EMG) 234.70p -1.18%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,215.00p -0.90%