London close: Stocks slump after giving up rally

27th Jul 2011 16:49

Stocks finished deep in the red, giving up an earlier rally, after a poor showing on Wall Street.Energy supplier Scottish & Southern Energy suffered after going ex-dividend.Meanwhile, sector peer Centrica also fell, albeit by a lesser extent, after utilities firm British Gas (owned by Centrica) received a £2.5m fine for mishandling customer complaints. Terrestrial broadcaster ITV fell after warning that the outlook for the TV advertising market remains uncertain, despite earnings and revenue beating estimates in the first half.But software groups were in demand, notably data search group Autonomy, which posted record revenues in the second quarter and hailed the shift by many of its customers towards its "cloud" computing services. Revenues rose by 16% from the same quarter last year to $256m (£156.5m). Autonomy said its cloud business - which allows customers to manage data on computers remotely - had commitments from customers worth $465m on 30 June, up from $390m three months earlier. Earnings per share climbed to $0.30 from $0.22. In the same sector, accountancy software titan Sage edged higher after saying that it has continued to deliver good growth despite an uncertain economic backdrop, and full year results should be in line with the board's expectations.Interim figures from cigarettes maker British American Tobacco underwhelmed, despite numbers coming in slightly ahead of expectations, as higher prices offset volume weakness.In the FTSE 250, shares in Provident Financial jumped after the doorstep lender lifted half year profits on the back of higher customer numbers. Pre-tax profits in the half year to 30 June climbed to £62.3m from £54m as customer numbers increased to 2.4m from 2.3m. Shares of precision tool maker Renishaw slumped despite it reporting a rise in full-year pre-tax profits and higher revenue and raising its annual dividend. For the year ended 30 June, total group revenue surges 59% to £288.7m, including £8.9m revenue from acquisitions during the year, up from £181.6m for last year. Bluetooth chip specialist CSR rose after second quarter revenue came in line with management guidance, and slightly ahead of what the City was expecting.Electrical components manufacturer Laird gave up gains that came after it reported a 65% surge in half year underlying pre-tax profit and said it expects further progress through the rest of 2011 and beyond. Investors were unimpressed with US-based Cooper Industries's sweetened offer, valuing the biggest maker of electronic shields for laptops and televisions at £533m or 200p-a-share. Also wanted was Dignity, the provider of funeral-related services, after it said that revenue grew 6.7% in the six months ended 1 July.Mainland European newspaper publisher Mecom posted a fall in revenues and profits in the half year to 30 June, but sees the decline in print advertising to slow in the second half and intends to pay a 5.5 euro cent (4.9p) interim dividend. The shares moved higher.Shares in fertiliser group Plant Health Care shot up after it said it had signed an agreement for its plant growth compound Myconate to be sold alongside Dutch seed treatment group INCOTEC's seed treatment packages. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.The miserable performance and restructuring of last year's acquisition, Cobent, put a serious dent in the half-year profits of risk management software provider Access Intelligence."With the exception of Cobent, we had a pretty good six months," company chairman Michael Jackson told Sharecast. Revenue in the six months to 31 May eased to £4.03m from £4.14m the year before, but, encouragingly, recurring revenues now account for 65% of total revenue, up from 57% in the first half of last year.FTSE 100 - RisersAutonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,720.00p +3.86%Sage Group (SGE) 281.90p +1.73%ITV (ITV) 68.90p +1.32%Lonmin (LMI) 1,322.00p +1.30%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 594.50p +0.85%United Utilities Group (UU.) 603.50p +0.67%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,635.00p +0.62%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,701.00p +0.53%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,871.00p +0.35%Next (NXT) 2,416.00p +0.25%FTSE 100 - FallersScottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,327.00p -5.28%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 43.23p -4.28%Barclays (BARC) 221.00p -3.39%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 35.01p -3.21%Investec (INVP) 492.70p -3.11%Aviva (AV.) 396.60p -3.10%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,425.00p -3.06%BAE Systems (BA.) 292.50p -2.92%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 112.00p -2.78%Aggreko (AGK) 1,943.00p -2.66%FTSE 250 - RisersProvident Financial (PFG) 1,115.00p +8.36%Rank Group (RNK) 149.30p +3.68%Beazley (BEZ) 136.10p +3.34%Telecom Plus (TEP) 681.50p +3.26%Cranswick (CWK) 648.50p +3.10%RPS Group (RPS) 237.30p +2.77%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 174.50p +1.93%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 42.15p +1.59%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 145.40p +1.39%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 672.00p +1.20%FTSE 250 - FallersRenishaw (RSW) 1,690.00p -10.39%Laird (LRD) 177.50p -7.17%Spirent Communications (SPT) 126.70p -6.15%Premier Foods (PFD) 18.97p -5.15%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 14.03p -5.01%Elementis (ELM) 174.00p -4.71%Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 152.00p -4.22%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,002.00p -4.11%Bankers Inv Trust (BNKR) 405.10p -3.66%St James's Place (STJ) 357.10p -3.64%