London midday: Equities drift lower

13th Apr 2010 12:07

Mining stocks remain a drag on the Footsie but retailers see some support following the release of upbeat retail sales data.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%.The retail sales data has given a boost to retailers such as Kingfisher, Home Retail, Next and Sainsbury but not 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 is wanted on rumours that US consumer electronics chain Best Buy is contemplating a bid.Lonmin is the heaviest faller in the mining sector, followed by Antofagasta, as mining stocks account for eight of the ten worst performing Footsie constituents.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 has 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, has 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 has signed a significant new contract with another global leading semiconductor corporation for the use of its NFC intellectual property in their range of chips targeted at mobile handsets incorporating connectivity solutions.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 272.70p +2.87%Kingfisher (KGF) 238.60p +2.62%Diageo (DGE) 1,161.00p +1.84%Next (NXT) 2,332.00p +1.26%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 92.40p +1.20%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 349.90p +0.95%Tesco (TSCO) 446.60p +0.88%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 378.80p +0.80%FTSE 100 - FallersLonmin (LMI) 2,061.00p -2.46%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,020.00p -2.39%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,850.00p -2.23%Xstrata (XTA) 1,254.00p -2.18%Aggreko (AGK) 1,199.00p -2.12%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,544.00p -2.09%Fresnillo (FRES) 850.00p -1.96%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,198.00p -1.88%