London open: Footsie starts down

2nd Jul 2009 08:18

London's top stocks have dropped in early dealings Thursday after Wall Street steadily declined from morning highs on Wednesday.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. The group said on Thursday it received valid acceptances in respect of 508.6m new shares at £14 each. Brewing and pub group Greene King has reported profits that beat forecasts it made at the time of its rights issue in April that raised over £200m for the group. 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. 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.FTSE 100 - RisersBarclays (BARC) 293.80p +1.22%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,192.00p +1.02%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 314.00p +0.88%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 318.75p +0.39%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.28p +0.04%Xstrata (XTA) 693.40p +0.03%FTSE 100 - FallersLonmin (LMI) 1,177.00p -3.37%Aviva (AV.) 338.25p -3.01%Schroders (SDR) 829.50p -2.58%BAE Systems (BA.) 328.75p -2.52%Schroders NV (SDRC) 685.00p -2.35%WPP Group (WPP) 404.00p -2.30%