LONDON (ShareCast) - - China's Wen dampens sentiment
- IMF cuts global growth forecast
- G4S, Tullow, Sage and Barclays lead the fallers

The FTSE 100 finished flat on Monday as a late burst of buying helped the benchmark index recover some of its earlier losses on the back of concerns over the global economic outlook.

After China registered its sixth straight quarterly slowdown in growth last week, Premier Wen Jiabao had some worrying words about his country’s economy: “It should be clearly understood that the momentum for a stable rebound in the economy has not yet been established,” he warned according to a report from the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) is reportedly supporting the idea of imposing losses on senior bond holders to share the burden of the Spanish bank rescue. According to The Wall Street Journal, ECB President Mario Draghi is now arguing for senior creditors to be held accountable when a bank is pushed into liquidation.

US stocks slipped after the opening bell in New York after retail sales fell by 0.5% in June, compared with the consensus forecast of a 0.2% increase. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve and its Chairman Ben Bernanke will be in the spotlight again this week ahead of the semi-annual monetary policy report on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its global growth forecast for 2012 from 3.6% to 3.5% and its 2013 estimate from 4.1% to 3.9%.

FTSE 100: G4S steals the headlines after Olympics trouble

Security solutions firm G4S tumbled from the off after saying that it will incur a loss on its Olympics Games contract of £35-50m after failing to provide the number of staff for the event that it had committed to. The stock was being pressured down further by downgrades by both UBS and Jefferies this morning.

Mining peers Polymetal, Randgold, Kazakhmys and Vedanta and luxury brand Burberry were heavy fallers on the back of worries over the Chinese economy.

Tullow fell in the afternoon after revealing that it has plugged and abandoned a well in Guyana due to safety concerns.

Accountancy software leviathan Sage said it was still waiting for the looked-for pick-up in Europe to happen. While the group assured that it has been trading broadly in line with expectations since the end of March, that didn't stop shares falling over 3% today.

UK banking group Barclays was suffering as the meeting between the Treasury Select Committee and the lender's former Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier, one of the men at the centre of the LIBOR-fixing scandal, kicked off this afternoon.

Pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline was in demand after it lifted its offer terms for US peer Human Genome Sciences in order to secure approval from the latter's board. Glaxo is offering $14.25 a share for HGS in a deal which values the US firm at $3.6bn.

Oil giant Shell rose late on after saying that it will not go above it 220p-a-share offer for AIM-listed Cove Energy and is not going to take part in the auction procedure, leaving Thai rival PTTEP as the firm favourite to win the takeover.

Mid-cap movers

Aviation services and newspaper distribution group John Menzies was wanted after announcing that it is to close down its cargo operations at airports in Glasgow, Birmingham, the East Midlands and Manchester. 



Recruitment firm SThree was lower after posting a 16.9% drop in half-year pre-tax profit as it expanded its international network but maintained its dividend payment. 



AIM-listed oil and gas group Borders & Southern plummeted 70% after saying that it has been forced to plug and abandon its Stebbing well after being unable to reach all its potential reservoir targets due to "anomalous pressure conditions".


FTSE 100 - Risers
Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 218.30p +2.78%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 160.00p +2.70%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 697.00p +1.83%
CRH (CRH) 1,212.00p +1.76%
Schroders (SDR) 1,336.00p +1.67%
Hammerson (HMSO) 464.40p +1.60%
SSE (SSE) 1,430.00p +1.56%
British Land Co (BLND) 533.50p +1.52%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,052.00p +1.45%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 320.70p +1.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
G4S (GFS) 254.60p -8.65%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,386.00p -3.28%
Sage Group (SGE) 276.00p -3.16%
Barclays (BARC) 157.70p -2.74%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 727.50p -2.22%
Polymetal International (POLY) 858.00p -2.17%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,805.00p -2.03%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 897.50p -1.86%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,207.00p -1.79%
National Grid (NG.) 682.50p -1.52%

FTSE 250 - Risers
FirstGroup (FGP) 200.00p +5.43%
Salamander Energy (SMDR) 188.60p +5.30%
Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 510.00p +3.53%
Regus (RGU) 85.20p +3.09%
Beazley (BEZ) 150.00p +2.81%
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 431.60p +2.81%
Britvic (BVIC) 280.60p +2.75%
Hays (HAS) 68.80p +2.69%
UBM (UBM) 624.00p +2.55%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 322.70p +2.51%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 200.40p -4.75%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 439.90p -4.70%
Kenmare Resources (KMR) 32.47p -3.68%
Soco International (SIA) 319.70p -3.33%
Rank Group (RNK) 118.00p -3.04%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 66.35p -2.64%
Dixons Retail (DXNS) 16.40p -2.56%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 103.50p -1.90%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 208.70p -1.79%
Premier Oil (PMO) 361.80p -1.76%

BC

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