FTSE down: Whitbread up, Autonomy down
Heavyweight mining stocks drifted lower today as the wide FTSE 100 Index trod water.
A mix of broker downgrades and easing metal prices on a stronger dollar sent the sector lower after firm gains earlier in the week.
The wider blue-chip index closed 7.2 points, or 0.14%, higher at 5,161.9 despite little corporate news to drive forward stocks.
An analyst downgrade saw Vedanta Resources suffer the biggest fall, while other mining firms also gave back some of their recent rises as talk from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke over an eventual end to record low interest rates firmed up the dollar.
Vedanta slid 28p to 2,162p or 1.28% after Goldman Sachs' comments that volumes at the firm's aluminium, zinc and iron ore facilities were lower than it had expected.
Elsewhere in the sector Antofagasta and Eurasian Natural Resources were also losers, down 11p to 823.5p and 12.5p to 930p respectively.
Lloyds Banking Group meanwhile lost further ground as sentiment continued to be affected by the uncertainty surrounding its involvement in the government's asset protection scheme. Shares dipped 0.31p to 94p as the prospect of a major rights issue concerned traders.
Hotel chain Whitbread topped the risers' board in the Footsie, with a 55p gain to 1,304p in early trading, after US hotel giant Marriott posted upbeat earnings and an upgrade from broker Barclays Capital. It later closed 20p up at 1,269p.
Marriott beat expectations to post a profit of 15 cents a share, and reported a smaller-than-expected fall in revenue yesterday.
Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn and the Costa coffee brands, also benefited from a recommendation upgrade by Barclays Capital to 'overweight' from 'underweight', as the broker believes consensus forecasts are conservative.
'We would recommend buying shares ahead of [Whitbread's first-half results on 13 October] as we believe that profit guidance is likely to prove conservative and we expect consensus forecasts to be revised upwards again following this event,' BarCap analysts write in a note.
Intercontinental Hotels was close behind with a 12p jump to 823.5p.
Retailers delivered some of the better performances of the session following an announcement from John Lewis that department store sales surged 6.3% during a better-than-expected week of trading.
B&Q owner Kingfisher rose 6.4p to 233.1p - the FTSE 100 index's top riser - and Next gained 3p at 1802p. Supermarket Sainsbury's was also ahead with a 2.7p rise to 313.9p after two losing sessions on the back of a poorly-received trading update.
With news thin on the ground, oilfield services company Wood Group slipped back 0.7p to 326.8p as it warned of delays in the pace at which projects are progressing.
Outside the top flight, the owner of Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's, Restaurant Group, added 2.9p to 192.9p after Citigroup started coverage on the stock with a buy rating.
Citi's note initiating coverage on a host of players in the UK pub sector also rated Greene King a buy, while the stock rose 1.4p to 417.8p. All Bar One owner Mitchells & Butlers - also fancied by the broker - was 0.3p dearer at 252.3p.
Elsewhere shares in JJB Sports fell 5% or 1.75p to 32.75p after it announced plans to raise £100m through the issue of new shares. The proceeds amount to more than the company's current market value.
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