London midday: Shares lack direction

3rd Dec 2009 12:11

Banking shares are still marching forward but gains are countered by weakness among miners, despite an assertion by influential US bank Goldman Sachs that commodity prices are set to rise in 2010.Goldman Sachs also seems to be out of step in its view of banks today, having downgraded the sector to 'neutral' following its recent strong showing. The US bank said that large global retail banks are likely to be the stocks to hold in the sector.Falling into that category is Barclays, which is wanted after the Telegraph reported that it is set to award its 22,000 investment bankers pay rises of up to 150%. Lloyds Banking is also higher, as is Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), The latter has reversed earlier losses. Market makers initially marked RBS lower on news that that the bank's board is threatening to resign en masse if Alistair Darling puts a padlock on the group's £1.5bn bonus pot.Xstrata has approved a US$542m (£325m) investment to extend the life of its Ernest Henry Mining (EHM) copper-gold mine near Cloncurry in north-west Queensland, Australia, to at least 2024. The money will be spent on the transformation of open pit mining to a major underground mine. The stock is the worst performing blue-chip, however, joining its fellow miners in the red as industrial metals prices turn lower. Silver miner Fresnillo is weaker in line with the softer silver price while gold miner Randgold Resources is also on the slide as the price of gold comes off its overnight high.On the results front, Kingfisher reported a 2.4% rise in third quarter sales thanks to a strong performance by its B&Q brand in the UK and Poland. Sales in the 13 weeks ended 31 October came to £2.69bn, up 5.6% on a reported basis and 2.4% in constant currencies. Like-for-like sales have increased by 0.8%, while retail profit jumped by 23.4% to £277m.Engineering conglomerate Halma reported slightly lower half year profits but said order intake was lightly ahead of revenue. Pre-tax profit from continuing operations was down 2% at £38.1m in the 27 weeks to 3 October from £39m after incurring £1.7m of restructuring costs. Statutory pre-tax profit was down 1% at 35.4m.Pub group and brewer Marston's posted a sharp fall in profits in the year to 3 October, but these were ahead of previous expectations and the company said the improving trend of the second half has continued in recent weeks.Anglo-Swedish drugs giant AstraZeneca is to licence TC-5214, the treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) developed by biopharmaceutical company Targacept. The pair will work together on the global development and commercialisation of TC-5214, a late stage product which recently completed a phase IIb clinical trial. Among second liners property web site Rightmove is sharply lower on speculation that Internet search giant Google is contemplating setting up a UK property portal.Train and bus operator Go Ahead has exchanged contracts to sell its airport ground handling and cargo operations to focus on its rail and bus activities. It is selling ground handling and cargo operations at Heathrow and Manchester Airport to Middle Eastern travel group Dnata for £15m. Insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson said it is in advanced talks to buy Midas Capital's iimia Wealth Management (iWM) unit for around £7.25m.Asia-focused oil company Salamander Energy has agreed to farm out interests in five blocks in Northeast Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam to Australia's Origin Energy.Tanker broker ACM Shipping posted flat profits in the six months to September 30 as the recovery in oil prices kept demand buoyant.Equipment rental group Ashtead Group saw interim profits plummet and expects trading to remain tough in the second half of its financial year.Petra Diamonds, which part owns South Africa's Cullinan mine, has raised US$120m (£72.7m) from a placing of shares at 60p each to strengthen the balance sheet and develop its mines.FTSE 100 - RisersLegal & General Group (LGEN) 78.50p +3.70%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 55.00p +3.58%Barclays (BARC) 308.00p +3.53%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 34.45p +2.70%British Airways (BAY) 207.70p +2.62%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 874.00p +2.22%Sage Group (SGE) 225.40p +1.94%Prudential (PRU) 655.50p +1.86%3i Group (III) 279.90p +1.74%Aviva (AV.) 383.60p +1.64%FTSE 100 - FallersXstrata (XTA) 1,111.00p -3.22%Fresnillo (FRES) 891.50p -1.82%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,235.00p -1.73%Anglo American (AAL) 2,679.00p -1.54%Lonmin (LMI) 1,882.00p -1.52%Antofagasta (ANTO) 922.50p -1.49%BAE Systems (BA.) 335.80p -1.24%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,250.00p -1.22%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 546.00p -1.09%Vodafone Group (VOD) 141.50p -1.08%