London midday: Stocks stuck lower amid growth concerns

18th Oct 2011 12:22

The leading share index remains under pressure, with a slight slowdown in Chinese growth the latest development to jangle nerves over the state of the economy.Latest talk is that increasing the capacity of the European Financial Stability Fund which would be used to bail out stricken Eurozone countries, could jeopardize France's AAA rating. So says the DIW institute in Germany, an adviser to chancellor Merkel.Meanwhile, in China, third quarter growth fell short of expectations. GDP expansion moderated to to a rate of 9.1% from 9.5% in the second quarter. Here, inflation jumped in September after a hike in utility prices, according to official figures. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the Government's preferred measure of inflation, rose to 5.2%, from 4.5% in August. This was higher than expected, with experts forecasting the figure would only reach 5%. Unsurprisingly, it is miners that bear the brunt of the selling in the FTSE 100 amid concerns over global growth. Among the fallers is diversified giant Xstrata, which gave a taste of the uncertain global picture with a third quarter update that showed production of some commodities roaring on amid continued high prices, but others slowing down as prices ease.Costa Coffee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread is bucking the downward trend today after it saw group like-for-like sales rise by 3.3% in the six months to the start of September. Total revenue was up 10.7% to £891.3m from £805.4m the year before, while underlying profit before tax was up 15.2% to £174.9m from £151.8m. "The first half performance puts us on track to deliver full year results in line with expectations," said Whitbread's chief executive, Andy Harrison. Another riser today is Lamprell. The a specialist engineering firm serving the oil and gas industry has announced the National Drilling Company (NDC) of Abu Dhabi is exercising its option for Lamprell to build two "jack-up rigs". A jack-up rig is a platform that can stay still on the sea floor but then be moved if necessary. Some have described them as "boats on stilts." Bellway, the house builder, is also wanted after it saw full-year profit before tax of £67.2m exceed market expectations of £63.8m. Turnover was also higher than expected, at £886m, versus the £859m expected by the market. Completed sales of 4,922 homes were made at an average price of £175,613, a shade above the £175,000 predicted by broker Peel Hunt. The final dividend has been increased by just over 30% to 8.8p. Business events organiser and publisher UBM says underlying revenue for the nine months to the end of September rose 8.5% on the previous year to £706.2m. Adjusted operating profit at the publishers of Property Week and Farmer's Guardian rose by 16.4% to £127.5m giving a margin of 18.1% (Sept 2010: 17.0%). It is another stock bucking the downward trend.Engineering group IMI has bought TH Jansen Armaturen, a German business specialising in severe service valves and related flow control products, for an enterprise value of €17.5m, including around €5.2m of assumed debt.Sarantel, the maker of high performance antennas for military and consumer uses, is positioned higher after it said it has completed a trial of technology that records the location of photographs using GPS with a "major Japanese camera manufacturer" in Tokyo. Sarantel said the small size and high performance of its GeoHelix GPS technology make it particularly well suited to this application and reduce the cost of manufacture, compared to the lower performance alternatives. FTSE 100 - RisersG4S (GFS) 234.40p +6.59%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,394.00p +1.38%BP (BP.) 431.15p +1.32%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 672.00p +1.05%Amec (AMEC) 884.00p +0.91%GKN (GKN) 192.00p +0.89%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 695.00p +0.87%BG Group (BG.) 1,355.00p +0.71%WPP (WPP) 643.50p +0.55%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,342.00p +0.52%FTSE 100 - FallersRio Tinto (RIO) 3,136.00p -5.03%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,150.00p -4.64%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,365.00p -4.48%Lonmin (LMI) 1,031.00p -4.27%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,563.00p -4.05%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 488.50p -3.65%Xstrata (XTA) 918.20p -3.25%Aviva (AV.) 329.80p -3.00%Anglo American (AAL) 2,237.00p -2.91%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 633.00p -2.84%FTSE 250 - RisersBellway (BWY) 706.00p +4.21%Kentz Corporation Ltd. (KENZ) 480.00p +3.23%UBM (UBM) 479.40p +3.05%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 471.30p +2.21%Lamprell (LAM) 228.50p +2.01%BH Macro Ltd. EUR Shares (BHME) € 19.45 +1.83%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 118.00p +1.72%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.95 +1.70%Rightmove (RMV) 1,268.00p +1.60%Cape (CIU) 469.60p +1.56%FTSE 250 - FallersWilliam Hill (WMH) 229.70p -4.89%Petropavlovsk (POG) 659.00p -4.35%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 44.62p -4.25%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 148.20p -4.20%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 103.00p -3.92%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 90.55p -3.82%Afren (AFR) 88.90p -3.37%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 319.40p -3.24%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 490.60p -3.23%Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 214.00p -3.21%