London open: London recovers but Thomas Cook plummets

22nd Nov 2011 08:36

The Footsie opened moderately higher on Tuesday, following yesterdays mass sell-off which saw most major benchmarks across the globe losing around 2% of their value.However, likely to limit gains today is last night's confirmation by US bipartisan 'supercommittee' that they have not agreed on a plan to cut the nation's deficit by $1.2trn. "Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," according to a joint statement by Republican representative Jeb Hensarling and Democratic senator Patty Murray.THOMAS COOK PLUMMETS, MINERS RECOVERIn company movements, the big news this morning was surrounding travel company Thomas Cook, which saw its share price drop over 50% on the FTSE 250. Shares plummeted this morning after the firm said it was in talks with its banks about borrowing more money, due to a "deterioration of trading in some areas of the business in the current quarter", the firm said. It added that it would delay the release of its full year results until the discussions were finished.Nevertheless, the miners were clawing their way back tracking metal prices higher. The mining sector was making average gains of 1.64% this morning, but were still down 8.4% on the week. Lonmin, Anglo American, ENRC and Kazakhmys were among the best performers on the FTSE 100.Homeserve, whose share price has more than halved since revealing a mis-selling scandal just three weeks ago, dropped a further 5% this morning after releasing its half-year results. While the figures relate to the period before the suspension of its telesales activity, and showed a 25% rise in revenue, the chief executive said "We were disappointed to have found evidence of a shortfall in our standards in our UK sales and marketing procedures."Intermediate Capital rose after seeing both assets under management and profits rise in the first half. Mitchell & Butlers followed suit after full-year sales rose 4.9% while operating profits nudged 1.1% higher.BCFTSE 100 - RisersGlencore International (GLEN) 383.65p +2.28%Lonmin (LMI) 1,000.00p +2.15%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 234.70p +1.95%British Land Co (BLND) 462.60p +1.87%Anglo American (AAL) 2,279.00p +1.70%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,288.50p +1.70%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 609.50p +1.58%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 820.00p +1.55%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 19.86p +1.53%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 475.95p +1.48%FTSE 100 - FallersSmith & Nephew (SN.) 564.00p -1.83%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,227.00p -0.89%BAE Systems (BA.) 259.90p -0.88%BT Group (BT.A) 180.40p -0.33%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,300.00p -0.31%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,798.00p -0.30%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,841.00p -0.21%Meggitt (MGGT) 384.30p -0.16%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 676.50p -0.15%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 681.00p -0.15%FTSE 250 - RisersPremier Foods (PFD) 5.59p +7.80%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 256.10p +5.74%Perform Group (PER) 209.90p +4.95%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,590.00p +4.35%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 226.70p +3.99%Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 217.30p +3.82%Grainger (GRI) 92.95p +3.68%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 173.10p +3.65%Atkins (WS) (ATK) 595.00p +3.48%Unite Group (UTG) 160.80p +3.41%FTSE 250 - FallersThomas Cook Group (TCG) 19.80p -51.84%TUI Travel (TT.) 142.70p -5.25%Homeserve (HSV) 237.40p -4.85%ITE Group (ITE) 182.60p -2.92%Galliford Try (GFRD) 460.00p -1.81%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 101.60p -1.36%Misys (MSY) 273.60p -1.26%RPS Group (RPS) 176.90p -1.23%Kier Group (KIE) 1,306.00p -1.21%Bodycote (BOY) 251.50p -0.98%