London afternoon: Footsie bottoms out

Leading shares trod water over the lunchtime session, leaving Footsie still stranded in the red. Banks remain in the doldrums. Fears that Standard Chartered's rights issue yesterday could be the start of a flood of cash calls has unsettled Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays.Metal prices are back on the rise as the dollar heads in the opposite direction. That is not enough to prevent gold miner African Barrick Gold taking a tumble, however, after it uncovered some dodgy goings on at its operations in Tanzania. The company has suspended 40% of the mining department at its Buzwagi mine following a fuel theft it suspects was an inside job. Rio Tinto has edged higher. After a strong first half to 2010 it reported more of the same for the third quarter with operations running at or close to capacity. "This quarter we achieved record production in iron ore, alumina and coking coal," said chief executive Tom Albanese.Hochschild has cut its stake in Lake Shore Gold from 35% to just 6% after making a 33% return on its original investment. The Peruvian miner will receive C$392.4m (£245m) from the sale at C$3.60 a share compared with a purchase price of C$2.70 per share.Fresnillo is the best performer in the mining sector, with the Mexican precious metals miner still basking in the afterglow of its third quarter production update yesterday. A trading update from Guinness brewer Diageo fell a bit flat. The company, which owns some of the world's best known spirits brands, posted a 5% organic rise in sales in the third quarter, but warned of weakness in Europe, particularly ailing economies such as Greece and Spain.Index heavyweight Vodafone is also going well after a Nomura upgrade. The Japanese broker has raised its target price to 200p, raised its earnings forecast and kept a buy rating. The strong figures from Intel earlier this week are keeping interest healthy in chip designer ARM shares. Software group Innovation is another tech stock in demand, on whispers that a predator is preparing to launch a 17-19p a share bid for the company.Newsagent and bookshop WH Smith is in demand after it posted a strong rise in profits and upped its final dividend by a fifth after a record year from its outlets in railway stations and airports. Pre-tax profits in the year to August jumped by 9% from the previous year to £89m, even as revenues slipped to £1.31bn from £1.34bn. A final dividend of 13.3p is proposed, up 18% on the previous year.Emerging markets asset manager Ashmore, also higher today, grew assets under management (AuM) by 18% in the three months to 30 September, much more than expected.Cash and carry group Booker posted a sharp rise in interim profits and reports strong turnover so far in the second half. Pre-tax profits in the 24 weeks to September 10 climbed to £36.9m from £29.7m in the same period the previous year on sales that rose 5.5% to £1.7bn.Elsewhere in retail-related stocks, Mothercare, the baby clothes and children's toy retailer, put in a better performance during the second quarter, narrowing the decline in like for like sales compared with the first three months. UK like for like (LFL) sales dropped 3.2%, or 1.9% including VAT, in the 13 weeks ended 9 October, slightly less than the 4.1% reported in the 15 weeks to 10 July.Greeting card retailer Clinton Cards is cautious ahead of Christmas after seeing sales decline in the year to August 1 amid fragile consumer confidence. Sales fell to £337m from £340m the previous year, while adjusted pre-tax profits edged up to £13.3m from £12.9m.Internet fashion retailer ASOS continues to see sales soar as it consolidates its position in the UK and makes strong inroads abroad. Sales in the three months to September 30 rose by 47% from the same period a year ago to £69.7m. UK sales were up 21% to £43.7m while international sales rose by 128% to £26m.Pub chain JD Wetherspoon is lower today after announcing some senior departures. The chain famous for 99p pints is losing its finance director and chief operating officer "in due course" after just a couple of years on the board. Former Tesco man Keith Down, finance boss and company secretary since 2008, and Paul Harbottle, at Wetherspoon since 2003 and now chief operating officer, will leave.Outsourced services provider Mouchel says that its pre-exceptional profit in the year to July 2010 will be £30.5m, compared with previous broker estimates of around £35m.A couple of oil explorers have run into heavy weather, literally in the case of North Sea operator Encore Oil, which said that bad weather would delay the arrival of a rig at its Varadero location on block 28/9. Latin American oil firm PetroLatina. meanwhile, is feeling disgruntled after Colombia's hydrocarbon regulatory body reversed its decision to grant the AIM-listed company block LLA57 in the Llanos basin, and gave it, instead, to someone else.US-focused oil and gas group Nighthawk is flying high after it secured a £25m equity finance facility "to continue the development of the company's asset base."Scapa, the supplier of technical adhesive tapes, has kept up the positive momentum from the first quarter through the final months of the first half, led by strength in medical and industrial markets.