London midday: Miners keep Footsie subdued

27th Oct 2010 11:58

Footsie has dragged itself off the lows seen earlier in the morning but with weak metal prices hitting mining shares, the index is not making much headway.Reports suggesting that any new stimulus in the US will be smaller than expected have also knocked the miners with Kazakhmys, Xstrata and Rio Tinto the worst performers this morning.In company news, British American Tobacco's cigarette volumes rose in the Asia-Pacific region during the first nine months of 2010, but fell everywhere else as smokers cut back during the recession. The maker of Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall grew market share, but volumes fell 1% to 526bn. They were up 5% in Asia-Pacific, but down 8% in Western Europe, 3% in Africa and the Middle East, and 2% in Eastern Europe.Ad agency WPP enjoyed its fastest growth in a decade in the last three months chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell said yesterday, as recovery in corporate earnings fed through into marketing spending. Even that cheery news has failed to garner buying interest in the shares and it is left to defensive favourites such as utilities United Utilities, Severn Trent, Centrica, International Power and National Grid to provide the bulk of today's bright spots, though banks also provide some relief from the gloom, as they return to favour following the bashing Bank of England governor Mervyn King gave them yesterday.Oil explorer Soco has had no more luck with its second well in the DR Congo than it had with its first. The firm will now plug and abandon the second well, Kinganga Nyanya 1, in the Nganzi Block. Floor coverings retailer Carpetright said group sales declined 5.2% in the 12 weeks ended 23 October 2010 and warned it expects tough market conditions to continue into 2011. The closure of its operations in Poland accounted for 0.5% of the total revenue decline. UK and Republic of Ireland sales declined 4.6%, with like-for-like sales down 7.3%. Another heavy faller is CSR, the Bluetooth chip specialist, despite a "robust" third quarter, but revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to lower than last year. The company made sales of $222.1m during the three months, towards the bottom end of the $220-235m range predicted at the interim stage, though still up 6% on last year. Panmure Gordon thinks the net result may be that full year earnings will be around 4% below market consensus.DS Smith is in confident mood in the run up to December's interim results, which the paper and plastic packaging firm thinks will be way ahead of last year as the "encouraging" overall trading in the first quarter continued into the second. Helphire, which supplies replacement vehicles to drivers involved in accidents, is already predicting results for the year to June 2011 will be below current market expectations. The company, which only published its 2010 results at the start of this month, blames high petrol prices and fewer road miles being driven have led to lower accident rates.Falklands oil explorers Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration have jointly contracted for the use of the seismic data retrieval vessel MV Polarcus Nadia on their adjacent licences in the North Falkland Basin.Panmure Gordon has initiated coverage of Rockhopper with a "buy" recommendation and a 530p price target. "We believe that the forthcoming drilling programme can demonstrate the potential value in this area," the broker said. First Derivatives, a provider of software and support services to the financial services and technology industries, reported a 5.9% increase in first half pre-tax profit and is still confident of achieving full year results in line with market expectations.