London afternoon: Stocks dip in quiet trading

23rd Jun 2010 14:24

London had an up and down lunch time session with the Footsie ending the period more or less where it started it, in the red. Trading is a bit sluggish, however, and the suspicion is that traders are more interested in this afternoon's crunch World Cup match between Slovenia and England than in the stock markets.Silver miner Fresnillo is the best performer in an otherwise drab mining sector. Xstrata has been hit by a price target reduction from 1581p to 1571p by Morgan Stanley. The broker has also trimmed its price target for Lonmin from 2065p to 2047p.Rio Tinto, meanwhile, is lower on reports that the government in Guinea is threatening to withdraw part of the company's Simandou iron ore concession.Kesa Electricals, the company behind TVs-to-washing machines retailer Comet, traded in line with expectations during the 12 months to 30 April, but it's the French chain Darty that's behind a 28% recovery in profits to £98.6m. Rail and bus firm Stagecoach's profits beat market expectations despite raising earnings guidance as recently as the end of April. Underlying profit before tax in the year to 30 April were £161.3m, down from £196.4m the year before. Central Europe focused lender International Personal Finance said trading has been ahead of plan so far in 2010. Credit issued is growing steadily and credit quality in all markets is good, the company said. Premier Inn owner Whitbread would be interested in snapping up rival low-budget hotel chain Travelodge were its owners to put it up for sale, newspaper reports suggest. Graphics chip designer Imagination Technologies predicts the number of devices sold that use its chips could quadruple over the next few years. Revenues for the year to April 2010 rose 26% to £80.9m (2009: £64.1m). Pre-tax profits soared to £10.2m from £2.7m. The Capital Pub Company claims to have outperformed its peers with its full year results as London's pub scene remained more buoyant than the rest of the UK. Revenue in the year to 27 March 2010 rose 11% to £22m from £19.8m the year before, while adjusted profit before tax climbed 32% to £2.7m.Shares in Aim listed software group Third Quad Capital shot ahead as it said it enjoyed improved fortunes during the first half of 2010.Thor Mining, digging for gold in Western Australia, has slumped after saying it is asking investors for £2.7m to help fund exploration and evaluation of the Dundas project and evaluation of new projects.Shares in miner Herencia Resources jumped after it said that drilling at its Paguanta zinc-lead-silver-gold Project in Northern Chile showed mineralisation that is either a continuation of a previously discovered vein or an entirely new vein.Chinese company Bluestar Secutech, which specialises in video surveillance for banking clients, said the market picked up in the second half of the year enabling the group to hit its full year targets. For the year ended 31 March 2010, revenue increased by 22% while profit before tax was up by 46.9%.SVG Capital, which invests in private equity funds run mostly by Permira, will pocket £36.7m after the private equity giant and other owners agreed to sell Cognis for an enterprise value of €3.1bn (£2.6bn).Shares in Mavinwood dropped after the emergency repair group reported a wider full-year loss. The group's pre-tax loss increased to £7.8m in the year ending 31 December compared with a loss of £3.9m in the previous year as revenue dropped to £27m from £31.5m.