London midday: Stocks fall after flat start

9th Sep 2011 12:06

Stocks have eased slightly as nerves set in ahead of this weekend's meeting of the G7 grouping of industrialised countries.Motor insurer Admiral is in the slow lane after saying it could see "a small proportion" of its profits put at risk under the government's plans to ban the payment of referral fees to insurers. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that it plans to tackle rising insurance costs by placing abolishing the fees, as part of its commitment to curb 'compensation culture'. Referral fees account for 6% of Admiral's UK car insurance profit before tax.But Tullow Oil gushed higher after a joint venture it operates made an oil discovery at its Zeadyus exploration well, 150km offshore French Guiana. Shares surged over 8% in the opening minutes after its chief executive said, "The discovery at Zaedyus has proved the extension of the Jubilee-play across the Atlantic and made an important new discovery in French Guiana."Tullow owns 27.5% of the licence. North Petroleum and Wessex Exploration, which own 50% each of a joint venture with a 2.5% interest in the licence, have gushed higher. Shares of Investec edged higher after its announcement of a recommended offer for Evolution Securities, valuing the investment banking and stockbroking firm at £233.2m. Evolution's shares were given a boost early on.FTSE 250 oil and gas group Salamander Energy fell into the red after increasing its stake in Block G4/50, one of the largest blocks of prospective acreage in the Gulf of Thailand.Pubs group JD Wetherspoon saw shares drop after announcing that while like-for-like sales grew by 2.1% in the year to 24 July, the growth rate has slowed to 0.4% in the six weeks to 4 September.Multi-metal mining colossus Rio Tinto was lower after saying that it is to invest $310m to assure a sustainable water supply for its iron ore operations in Pilbara, Western Australia.FTSE 100 - RisersTullow Oil (TLW) 1,391.00p +13.37%Fresnillo (FRES) 2,194.00p +2.19%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,096.00p +1.75%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 677.00p +1.20%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,472.00p +0.82%British Land Co (BLND) 525.00p +0.77%Next (NXT) 2,361.00p +0.55%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,776.00p +0.49%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,391.00p +0.43%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 302.80p +0.40%FTSE 100 - FallersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 30.99p -5.81%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 21.58p -5.10%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,295.00p -5.06%Barclays (BARC) 151.50p -4.72%Xstrata (XTA) 1,006.00p -4.10%Glencore International (GLEN) 420.15p -3.75%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 156.40p -3.58%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,402.00p -3.38%Aviva (AV.) 310.80p -3.12%GKN (GKN) 182.60p -2.98%FTSE 250 - RisersExillon Energy (EXI) 262.00p +13.76%Ocado Group (OCDO) 116.20p +7.10%JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 183.10p +6.45%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 360.30p +4.43%EnQuest (ENQ) 106.40p +4.42%Kofax (KFX) 307.00p +2.68%Pennon Group (PNN) 672.00p +2.60%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 79.00p +2.60%ITE Group (ITE) 183.10p +2.29%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 240.00p +2.04%FTSE 250 - FallersHome Retail Group (HOME) 110.80p -5.94%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 32.41p -4.48%Debenhams (DEB) 53.30p -4.39%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 582.00p -4.35%JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 399.30p -4.01%Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 173.00p -4.00%SThree (STHR) 230.70p -3.92%Cookson Group (CKSN) 446.00p -3.78%Inchcape (INCH) 283.90p -3.76%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 368.00p -3.72%