London open: Miners make for dull start

25th Jan 2011 09:03

Miners have pulled Footsie lower in early dealing despite the 100-point plus surge on Wall Street overnight.Kazakhmys and Randgold are the worst affected, but the whole sector has run into a bout of profit taking. BSkyB is higher even though the bid from NewsCorp seems no nearer a conclusion. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt indicated he would refer it to the Competition Commission, but will wait until Rupert Murdoch's firm gives him some undertakings over the issues raised by Ofcom. Water group Severn Trent said the recent bad weather in the UK reduced the level of activity in its capital expenditure programme. For the full year 2010/11, the group now expects capital expenditure to be in the range of £400m to £410m. Water consumption levels in the second half of the financial year should be on a par with the previous year.Friends Provident, the trading business of life insurance consolidator Resolution, has appointed Lloyds Banking man Andy Briggs as chief executive with current incumbent Trevor Matthews moving to a new post of vice chairman. The investment pipeline is bulging at Intermediate Capital and the mezzanine finance specialist now expects to invest around £150m to £200m more this financial year than previously budgeted.Entertainment One, owner of the Peppa Pig franchise, says UK licensing and merchandising retail sales for the kids' television character hit a record £200m in 2010. Peppa was the highest selling pre-school toy license in Britain, knocking Thomas the Tank Engine off the top spot it had hogged for a number of years.PZ Cussons, famous for its Imperial Leather soap, has delivered interim profits slightly ahead of forecasts and thinks the full-year will meet expectations despite soaring raw material costs.Health and social care business Healthcare Locums has suspended its vice chairman and finance director after uncovering "serious" accounting irregularities and warned that results for 2010 are much worse than expected.Scalextrix and model train set maker Hornby warned annual pre-tax profit will fall short of market expectations after key Christmas sales were hurt by harsher than usual weather conditions.