London midday: Footsie rally fizzles out

7th Dec 2009 12:07

Footsie is going nowhere at present with the banks and miners sending the leading share index lower.Miners are under pressure with the improvement in the dollar. Better than expected US non-farm payroll figures last week have sparked speculation that the US could start to tighten monetary policy sooner than predicted. Xstrata, ENRC and Randgold are the worst hit. Banks RBS, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC join the miners lower on concern that chancellor Alistair Darling has something special in store for them on Wednesday in his pre-Budget speech. 'A supertax' on earnings over £500,000 is one of the measures being mooted.In the FTSE 250, Shanks Group has soared ahead after private equity group Carlyle made an approach for the waste management specialist. The original offer of 135p cash per share has been rejected with board apparently holding out for at least 150p.Cadbury said it will publish its formal response to the unwelcome bid from Kraft Foods on 14 December. The defence is likely to highlight the value of its brands. Electricity provider Scottish & Southern Energy blasted the final price control proposals from industry regulator Ofgem. The company said it will have to reassess its appetite for further investment in electricity distribution and transmission assets after digesting the final proposals for the electricity distribution price control for the five years from 1 April 2010. Ofgem will alow prices to rise by 5.6% per year, £4.30, on average.Engineer Renishaw said it expects first half and full year results to remain unchanged from previous guidance in October as the group's performance continues to improve. The group, which sells high-end engineering products such as calibration and neurological equipment, confirmed in September that a surge in orders meant that it could relax the 20% voluntary reduction in salaries that had been brought in at the start of 2009.Property company Great Portland Estates said its buildings at 18/19 Hanover Square in London's West End have been compulsorily purchased under the Crossrail Act of 2008.VT Group has reached financial close on the initial phase of the Council Borough's Building Schools for the Future programme.