London midday: Stocks bounce back

15th Jun 2011 12:10

The top share index headed back towards positive territory late in the morning after an earlier weak spell.Among the stocks moving higher is the property group British Land which is celebrating the government's decision not to list the Broadgate office development in the City of London. The company can now go ahead with its planned £850m redevelopment of the site on behalf of its tenant, the Swiss financial services group UBS. Supermarket group Sainsbury is higher after it saw like-for-like (LFL) sales growth in line with management's expectations in the 12 weeks to 11 June, though the growth rate was below some brokers' estimates. "Fuel price inflation combined with strong fuel volume growth resulted in an increase in total sales of 7.3%, with like-for-like sales up 4.8%. Excluding fuel, total sales were up 4.3%, with like-for-like sales up 1.9%," chief executive Justin King revealed.Sticking with the retail sector, Game Group tumbles after the video game retailer Game Group slashed its sales forecasts for the full year after worse than expected trading in the past 19 weeks. The video games market has seen revenue declines of 12.8% during the period, worse than industry forecasts at the start of the year, Game said. Game's total sales were down by 11.3%, or 9.4% on a like-for-like basis, when store closures are taken into account. Consulting and business services group Mouchel is another big faller today after it warned that it faces 'very challenging' trading amid UK local authority spending cuts. "The short-term outlook for the group continues to be very challenging and is heavily influenced by the steps the Coalition government is taking to rapidly bring down the deficit in public spending," it said in a company statement. Back in the FTSE 100, in a brief statement in response to press speculation, commodities trader Glencore International, one of today's fallers, has stated it is not actively considering an offer for Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC).Also in mining, sector giant Rio Tinto is speeding up the expansion of its iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is pumping in US$676m (£412m) to achieve capacity expansion to 333m tonnes a year in the first half of 2015, six months earlier than planned. Superyacht company YCO has the wind in its sails after it won a contract to build a big yacht, the company has announced. The project, to be undertaken in "a leading European shipyard" will involve "the full custom build of a motor yacht in excess of 80m and will be undertaken in conjunction with a world-renowned, UK based Superyacht Design House," the company said.Sticking with the nautical theme marina operator and regeneration group Sutton Harbour's profits fell sharply as its now discarded airline and soon-to-be closed airport proved a "major cash drain." The company posted a pre-tax profit on continuing operations of £1.71m for the period, down from £6.45m the previous year. The company is not paying a dividend.FTSE 100 - RisersTUI Travel (TT.) 214.70p +1.61%British Land Co (BLND) 597.50p +1.44%Whitbread (WTB) 1,549.00p +1.44%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 663.50p +1.22%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 390.50p +1.17%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 235.00p +0.99%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,333.00p +0.98%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,199.00p +0.76%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,030.00p +0.74%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,291.00p +0.70%FTSE 100 - FallersExperian (EXPN) 778.00p -2.81%Glencore International (GLEN) 486.00p -2.80%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,745.00p -2.24%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 304.80p -1.58%Aviva (AV.) 426.20p -1.39%G4S (GFS) 279.30p -1.38%Barclays (BARC) 261.05p -1.32%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 751.50p -1.31%Xstrata (XTA) 1,277.50p -1.20%Essar Energy (ESSR) 432.90p -1.07%FTSE 250 - RisersSenior (SNR) 163.80p +3.21%Marston's (MARS) 103.80p +2.77%Regus (RGU) 110.70p +2.50%Ocado Group (OCDO) 224.20p +2.05%Spectris (SXS) 1,579.00p +1.94%Berkeley Group Holdings (BKG) 1,169.00p +1.65%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 112.40p +1.63%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 145.90p +1.60%Sports Direct International (SPD) 230.00p +1.59%Pace (PIC) 109.70p +1.57%FTSE 250 - FallersITE Group (ITE) 219.10p -8.06%Supergroup (SGP) 826.00p -5.60%Keller Group (KLR) 510.50p -3.31%Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 96.60p -2.37%3i Infrastructure (3IN) 119.90p -2.36%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 48.19p -2.27%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 266.20p -2.20%Renishaw (RSW) 1,684.00p -2.09%International Personal Finance (IPF) 365.50p -2.09%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 231.00p -1.87%