London midday: Stocks retreat

17th Dec 2010 12:49

The leading index broke above 5,900 for a short time, but now finds itself stuck in the red as AstraZeneca and the banks offset gains in the property sector.The Bank of England has warned of more bad debt provisions for the banks and also expressed serious concerns for the bond markets if yields continued to rise. Lloyds and Barclays lead the sector lower.But property groups burst into life, with good gains for Land Securities, British Land and Derwent London. A surge in activity in the fourth quarter enabled temporary power and temperature control specialist Aggreko to nudge its full-year profit estimates higher. It now expects a pre-tax profit of around £305m for 2010, up from its estimate of £300m in October. However, next year will be tougher without such benefits as the World Cup, it warned.Petrofac, the oilfield services provider, thinks net profit for 2010 will be up by a fifth, in line with expectations, while the year-end order backlog should be a new record. In a statement ahead of full-year results due on 7 March, the company said it should match the $416.3m profit forecast by analysts.AstraZeneca has tumbled after it suffered another delay in getting US approval for its potential blockbuster blood-thinning drug Brilinta after the US Food and Drug Administration requested more information. The FDA issued AstraZeneca with a complete response letter requesting additional analysis of the data from a study of the effects of Brilinta (ticagrelor) on 18,600 patients in 43 countries compared with its main rival Plavix.Bus and train operator National Express will complete its business recovery programme ahead of schedule and now expects full-year profit to beat expectations. Normalised profit before tax, which excludes one-off items, will be "a little above current market expectations and markedly stronger than was expected back in January 2010". FCAM is higher after AIM-quoted activist investment company Sherborne Investors requisitioned a general meeting to remove two directors of F&C Asset Management and replace them with three of its own appointees. Pub owner Punch is in demand today after it saw a modest improvement in both arms of its operation over the past 16 weeks, but trading for its tenanted arm still remains very difficult.