London close: Markets dive

16th Apr 2010 16:21

Along with other global markets, London's benchmark was sideswiped by news that Goldman Sachs has been charged with fraud on subprime mortgages by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Stocks nosedived around 70 points in the final hour of trading as the news emerged. The banking sector had been in the blue for much of the day but finished down 1.8%. Barclays and Lloyds traversed earlier gains.RBS still finished well though, riding off the back of the BofA Merrill Lynch upgrade. Merrill raised its target price on the bank to 65p from 45p, highlighting its potential to benefit from economic recovery.Travel firms were down as flights across the UK remain grounded for a second day as the volcanic ash from Iceland continues to drift across Europe. British Airways and TUI Travel are amongst the major fallers.Cambridge-based enterprise software giant Autonomy was the heaviest faller after its trading statement disappointed. The group said first quarter results should be in line with the market's expectations.Xstrata spearheaded a clutch of miners amongst the top ten fallers, including Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Kazakhmys. The Office of Fair Trading has fined two tobacco manufacturers and ten retailers £225m in total after a seven-year investigation into price fixing. The watchdog said it found that the firms engaged in unlawful practices in relation to retail prices for tobacco products in the UK. The tobacco manufacturers involved are Imperial Tobacco, which was slapped with a £112.3m fine, and Gallaher, as well as the retailers Asda, The Co-operative Group, First Quench, Morrisons, One Stop Stores (formerly T&S Stores), Safeway, Sainsbury's, Shell, Somerfield and TM Retail.Temporary power and heating specialist Aggreko is lacking a bit of spark despite saying it performed in line with expectations in the first quarter of the year, with healthy revenue rises from both its divisions. Chipmaker ARM is higher after Goldman Sachs raised its target price on the company to 250p from 230p, saying the emergence of Apple's iPad device bodes well for the company.Its FTSE 250-listed peer CSR, which specialises in chips used for wireless communications, moves up after an upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' in expectation that big customers such as the mobile phone groups Samsung and Nokia.Fund manager Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the best FTSE 250 risers after it said it has had its best quarter ever with 'unprecedented' business volumes. Total assets under administration have grown by 12.8% from £15.6bn as at 31 December 2009 to £17.6bn as at 31 March 2010.Engineering data and IT systems provider Aveva said its full year results will be marginally ahead of market expectations. Property company British Land has bought 2 - 14 Baker Street in London from McAleer & Rushe. British Land is paying £29m for the 1950's built property which sits on the corner of Baker Street and Portman Square.Property investment group Hansteen is to buy a portfolio of 61 freehold and leasehold assets from two companies in receivership and one in administration.FTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 48.30p +5.11%Capita Group (CPI) 810.00p +1.76%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,493.00p +1.56%Serco Group (SRP) 627.50p +1.13%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,280.50p +0.67%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,469.00p +0.41%G4S (GFS) 264.80p +0.38%Amec (AMEC) 851.50p +0.35%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,760.00p +0.28%Prudential (PRU) 584.50p +0.26%FTSE 100 - FallersAutonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,740.00p -5.95%Xstrata (XTA) 1,236.50p -4.37%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,800.00p -3.87%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,498.00p -3.79%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,000.00p -3.75%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,125.00p -3.67%TUI Travel (TT.) 291.70p -3.41%Invensys (ISYS) 329.60p -3.29%Lonmin (LMI) 2,027.00p -3.25%Cairn Energy (CNE) 411.10p -3.23%FTSE 250 - RisersLamprell (LAM) 276.50p +3.36%CSR (CSR) 451.90p +3.17%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 373.50p +3.03%GKN (GKN) 145.10p +2.47%Bodycote (BOY) 210.80p +2.33%Yell Group (YELL) 56.30p +2.09%Inchcape (INCH) 32.07p +1.84%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 937.50p +1.68%St James's Place (STJ) 267.30p +1.44%SThree (STHR) 369.50p +1.26%FTSE 250 - FallersAveva Group (AVV) 1,153.00p -6.56%Fidessa (FDSA) 1,393.00p -5.56%COLT Telecom Group S.A. (COLT) 130.70p -3.90%Logica (LOG) 140.20p -3.64%Telecity Group (TCY) 403.70p -3.54%Petropavlovsk (POG) 1,240.00p -3.43%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 364.10p -3.42%Misys (MSY) 250.10p -3.40%Afren (AFR) 95.40p -3.39%Templeton Emerging Markets Inv Trust (TEM) 570.50p -3.39%FTSE TechMARK - RisersTorotrak (TRK) 25.25p +4.12%NXT (NTX) 15.00p +3.45%Xaar (XAR) 117.50p +3.07%Renovo Group (RNVO) 25.75p +3.00%Parity Group (PTY) 9.25p +2.78%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 10.25p +2.71%Trafficmaster (TFC) 38.00p +2.70%Innovation Group (TIG) 12.75p +2.00%Alphameric (ALM) 28.00p +1.82%Optos (OPTS) 122.00p +1.67%FTSE TechMARK - FallersFiltronic (FTC) 32.25p -6.52%BATM Advanced (BVC) 41.25p -4.07%Intec Telecom Systems (ITL) 63.00p -3.45%Anite Group (AIE) 31.00p -3.12%Ark Therapeutics (AKT) 9.75p -2.50%Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 264.00p -2.22%Corin Group (CRG) 70.50p -2.08%Skyepharma (SKP) 48.00p -2.04%XP Power (XPP) 576.00p -1.79%Dialight (DIA) 252.50p -1.75%