London afternoon: Cautious note from De La Rue

20th Jul 2010 14:25

Footsie lost more ground over the lunch time session with barely a fifth of the blue-chip index's constituents remaining in the red, and many of those are miners.Government spending cuts and their effect on the profits on the big players in the public sector is the day's big story after Cable & Wireless Worldwide warned that the coalition government's emergency budget will cause earnings growth to slow this year and come in at the lower end of the range of expectations. The largely UK focused part of the old Cable & Wireless, split off in March, said non-contracted spending in the UK public sector has slowed "very significantly". "Given the nature of our public sector business, this reduction will adversely impact trading in the current year." JP Morgan responded to the statement by cutting its rating for the shares from "neutral" to "underweight". Elsewhere in the sector mobile phone network operator Vodafone is hit by a downgrade to "hold" from "buy" by ING, while BT slides in sympathy with C&W. The Cable & Wireless announcement is also limiting enthusiasm for outsourcing specialists Serco and Capita, while among second liners business process outsourcing firm Xchanging and contract programming group Logica also suffer from local government spending fears fall-out.With metals prices firming mining stocks remain in demand. BHP Billiton, which has been upgraded to "overweight" from "equal weight" by Barclays Capital, is on the up, as are Rio Tinto, Vedanta and Xstrata.Bid speculation is keeping the share price of International Power bubbling. French energy giant GDF Suez revived talks yesterday about a partnership to create a new London-listed electricity group. The deal would see a combination of their businesses outside Europe and certain assets in the UK and Turkey.Power systems developer Rolls-Royce has been selected by Lockheed Martin as the in-service support provider for the engines on the CC-130J military transport aircraft flown by the Canadian Air Force.Banknote printer De La Rue sees its shares tumble after it revealed quality control issues at one of its paper production facilities. The company has suspended production at the facility while it sorts the problems out, and expects this will result in paper production and sales in 2010/11 being materially lower than originally planned.Bookie William Hill reported a rise in second quarter revenues, though gains from the World Cup were partly offset by a loss-making Royal Ascot festival. For the year to date, net revenue was up about 3% and pre-exceptional earnings before interest, tax and amortisation for the first half are expected to be around £135m from £134.6m last time.Data search software company Autonomy said a major US bank has placed an order for the company's compliance product. The agreement has an expected value of in excess of $15mi over the next few years. Nevertheless, the shares are lower with Panmure Gordon downgrading to "hold" from "buy" ahead of second quarter figures and after the pummelling IBM shares took yesterday following its disappointing second quarter figures. Tenanted pub group Enterprise Inns has continued to see an "improving trend" since the interim results on 11 May and predicts full-year results will match forecasts. The figures seem to have done as much, if not more, for the Punch Taverns share price.Severn Trent's customers kept consumption steady over the past three months from April, while prices declined by 0.7%. As a result, the water utility has kept its expectations and guidance unchanged for this year. Profits at Ryanair slipped by a fifth as the €50m cost of the volcanic ash cloud hit its first quarter, while the no-frills airline remains cautious for the remainder of the year.Soco International is getting rid of its operations in Thailand and using the proceeds of up to $106m to fund development of core assets in Vietnam and West Africa. Salamander Energy is paying $105m plus a contingent cash consideration of $1m for Soco Thailand and its 40% interest in the B8/38 licence, which holds the Bualuang field. Profits jumped by a quarter last year at spread bet firm IG Group as its bad debt charge tumbled and equity markets settled down after the volatility of 2009. The shares have been marked down however, with both Singer Capital Markets and Panmure Gordon suggesting the shares look a bit toppy after their recent good run.Aquarius Platinum rallied after a 'constructive' meeting with the South African Department of Mineral Resources over proposed enforced changes to the way mines are constructed.Exhibitions group ITE is trading in line with expectations and said it has noted indications of an improving trading environment in some of its principal markets.Annual losses at home shopping group Findel widened by a third as it scrapped its final dividend and warned current trading remains challenging.Shares in oil group Xcite Energy jumped after it said had entered into a contract for a rig to drill a well in the Bentley field in the North Sea.