London midday: Struggle for blue chips

2nd Jul 2009 12:11

London's top stocks are struggling to make headway with the index heading back down as buyers sit on the sidelines.London Stock Exchange is the biggest faller after it announced a new pricing scheme yesterday. The stock market operator says the new tariff would have resulted in £3m worth of trading fee reductions between January and March.Diageo, which announced yesterday it is cutting 900 jobs in Scotland as part of a major restructuring, tops the risers.Rio Tinto shareholders have taken up 96.97% of the shares offered to them as part of the miner's $15.2bn fully underwritten rights issue. Major shareholder Chinalco has taken up its entitlement in full.Pub groups are one of the strong sectors. Brewing and pub group Greene King reported profits ahead of forecasts made at the time of its rights issue in April that raised over £200m for the group. Enterprise Inns, Marston's and Punch are all up in sympathy.Specialist computer and video games retailer Game Group reported a 15.4% drop in like for like sales in the 21 weeks to 27 June, but said it remains confident in the outlook for the full year. The shares have taken a bashing, even so.Oilfield support services firm Petrofac has landed a gas compression project worth over $350m. Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has awarded Petrofac a contract for the Kauther gas-field depletion-compression project. Pizza delivery outfit Domino's Pizza has purchased an equipment leasing business from Dresdner Kleinwort Leasing. Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), a leading investor in and manager of buyout debt, today announced a fully underwritten 7 for 2 rights issue to raise £351m.Flexible pipeline supplier Wellstream Holdings has secured 90% of 2009's anticipated revenues at the halfway point.Serge Crasnianski is to take over as interim boss at photo booth operator Photo-Me International until the company finds a permanent replacement for Thierry Barel.Speciality pharmaceutical company ProStrakan has avoided a legal battle with Aventis Pharma by settling a tax issue out of court.Tikit said trading in the second quarter proved to be disappointing and warned that it expects its market in the second half of the year to remain difficult. Sierra Leone-focused miner African Minerals has raised £63.8m ($105m) from a cash placing with institutional investors in North America and the UK.