London close: Footsie finishes in the red

13th Apr 2010 16:16

Footsie finished slightly in the red but recovered from earlier lows as the benchmark index slumped in the afternoon following a poor start on Wall Street. US aluminum producer Alcoa fell after revenue came in short of expectations, which weighed on the mining sector in the UK. Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Lonmin, Randgold Resources and four other miners were amongst the top ten fallers. Retailers finished with sterling gains as retail sales data gave boost to the likes of Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, Next and Tesco.UK retail sales in March rose at their fastest rate in almost four years thanks to the earlier timing of Easter this year, new figures from the British Retail Consortium show. Total retail sales rose 6.6% against only 0.6% growth in March 2009. On a like-for-like basis, sales rose 4.4% from last year when sales had dropped 1.2%.One retailer not in fashion is department store Debenhams, which saw a bout of profit taking after the company announced interim results that failed to beat expectations. Pre-tax profits rose to £114.5m from £102.2m, with revenues climbing to £1.19bn from £1.06bn.Elsewhere in the retail sector Curry's and PC World owner DSG International was in demand on rumours that US consumer electronics chain Best Buy is contemplating a bid.Shares in Man Group rose on speculation there will be another rise in the net asset value for its AHL portfolio.Hartlepool Borough Council has awarded infrastructure contractor Balfour Beatty the first building contract under the council's £95m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Residential property owner Grainger expects to report a 42% jump in completed sales from its core and retirement solutions portfolio to about £78.5m in the six month ended 31 March. These completed sales include £5.2m of investment sales (sales with a tenant in place) and £14.9m of one-off sales of land and associated assets from its agricultural portfolio.Oil Explorer Tullow announced another find. Tullow Oil said the Kasamene-3 and Kasamene-3A wells in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2 have successfully delineated the extent of oil in the Kasamene field and discovered oil in the Wahrindi North fault block.Dragonfish, the independent B2B division of 888 Holdings, signed an extension to its existing agreement with Cashcade. Elsewhere in the FTSE 250 pubs group Punch Taverns gets up off the canvas after Panmure Gordon switched its rating on the stock from 'sell' to 'buy'.Defence and security technical services firm Cohort has won new contracts worth more than £60m in the UK defence sector.East London focused residential property developer Telford Homes said sales in the first quarter of 2010 were better than expected and now anticipates full year results will be 'materially ahead of market expectations.'Shares in Innovision Research and Technology gained on news that the wireless communications technology firm signed a significant new contract with another global leading semiconductor corporation for the use of its near-field communications intellectual property in their range of chips targeted at mobile handsets incorporating connectivity solutions.Promotional products producer 4imprint said sales in the first quarter of the year were 20% higher than the year before in constant currency terms, with all three of its divisions seeing revenue growth.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 272.30p +2.72%Kingfisher (KGF) 238.80p +2.71%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 93.50p +2.41%Diageo (DGE) 1,160.00p +1.75%Tesco (TSCO) 449.00p +1.42%BAE Systems (BA.) 375.00p +1.13%Whitbread (WTB) 1,543.00p +1.11%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 379.90p +1.09%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 349.70p +0.89%Next (NXT) 2,323.00p +0.87%FTSE 100 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,527.00p -3.17%Lonmin (LMI) 2,060.00p -2.51%Fresnillo (FRES) 846.00p -2.42%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,021.00p -2.30%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,849.00p -2.26%Aggreko (AGK) 1,198.00p -2.20%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,240.00p -2.15%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,197.00p -1.97%BG Group (BG.) 1,157.50p -1.82%Invensys (ISYS) 332.30p -1.66%FTSE 250 - RisersPunch Taverns (PUB) 92.00p +7.10%Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 241.00p +4.01%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 150.20p +3.94%SVG Capital (SVI) 171.00p +3.83%Ashtead Group (AHT) 100.90p +3.59%Domino Printing (DNO) 407.20p +3.53%DSG International (DSGI) 35.61p +3.19%888 Holdings (888) 104.50p +2.96%HMV Group (HMV) 88.90p +2.72%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 130.80p +2.35%FTSE 250 - FallersPetropavlovsk (POG) 1,285.00p -4.25%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 139.00p -4.07%Cookson Group (CKSN) 568.50p -4.05%Eaga (EAGA) 140.00p -3.71%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 435.00p -3.14%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 388.90p -3.07%CSR (CSR) 430.00p -3.02%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 154.50p -3.01%Debenhams (DEB) 76.10p -2.93%Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 523.00p -2.88%