London afternoon: Confidence blow for equities

28th Jan 2011 14:50

Leading shares are lower, with consumer stocks under the cosh after UK consumer confidence in January slumped in January, as the VAT rise kicked in. Insipid weekly trading figures from department store group John Lewis have not helped sentiment.The GfK NOP Consumer Confidence Index dropped eight points to -29 in January, the lowest figure since March 2009's -30. January saw decreases across all five measures; the most notable being in the "major purchase" index, which dropped 21 points, Gfk NOP added.With the price of the most actively traded gold futures contract hitting its lowest level since 4 October yesterday there is little enthusiasm for precious metals miners Fresnillo and African Barrick.Continued civil unrest in popular holiday destinations is hitting the share price of package tour firm TUI Travel .Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline is lower ahead of results next week. Glaxo and Actelion announced today they are halting joint development of their late-stage insomnia drug. Almorexant, citing tolerance concerns.Housebuilders subside after stockbroker Liberum issued a downbeat research note on the sector. Persimmon has had its rating cut from "hold" to "sell", while all other operators in Liberum's housebuilding universe have had their price targets cut, except for Bovis . Carpet seller Carpetright, due to release a Christmas trading update next week, takes collateral damage.Satellite operator Inmarsat saw its share price gain altitude. The company has commenced phase 2 of its agreement with LightSquared which has led to an immediate payment to Inmarsat of $20.1m.Appropriately enough for a Friday, pubs are on the minds of many investors. Pubs owner and ale brewer Marston's said profitability was in line with expectations in the 16 weeks to 22 January. Its managed pubs division grew like for like (LFL) sales by 2.1%. LFL sales for the six weeks to 8 January were flat.There were also few problems with snow in December for London-based pub owner and brewer Fuller's. Like for like sales in the core Managed Pubs and Hotels business grew by 3.7% over the 10 weeks to 22 January, bringing the like for like sales growth for the 43 weeks to 3.5%.With French bidder Oberthur now firmly dispatched, banknotes and passports printer De La Rue can concentrate on the serious job of running a business, and it remains optimistic after trading in line with expectations since September. The company, which has been fighting off its rival for the past few months and this week rejected a 935p-a-share offer, says full-year volumes at the currency division will be about 6 billion printed banknotes and 10,000 tonnes of banknote paper. "The board remains confident that the group's outlook for the financial year is in line with its previous expectations," it said. The new chief executive will announce the results of the strategic review in May.Chemring is higher after winning a $145m contract for the supply of ammunition to a Middle East customer. Mobile marketing services provider Velti is higher after it set its NASDAQ flotation price at $12 a share. Renewable Energy Generation has turned down a takeover approach that valued the wind farm operator at close to £70m. The company, which also runs an electricity generation plant fuelled by waste vegetable oil, said the approach, received this month, was made up of cash and shares and worth about 67.7p a share. Spread bet firm WorldSpreads will make a loss this year instead of an expected profit after revenues from new countries came in lower than anticipated. WorldSpreads opened offices in France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden in October but marketing lead times have been longer than forecast and market volatility lower.