London afternoon: Inflation concern rears its head

A rise in UK inflation has raised the prospect of an end to the Bank of England's quantitative easing programme and added to an already downbeat mood in the equity market.UK inflation increased for the first time in eight months in October following a rise in oil prices and a stronger pound. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% last month, pretty much as expected, while the annual rate quickened to 1.5%, up from 1.1% in September.Corporate news flow has contained its fair share of winners, however.Inter dealer-broker ICAP is up despite interim profits falling as it added that trading activity had picked up in September.Telephone giant Cable & Wireless is also wanted after it announced details of its proposed demerger. The company is to split into two separately listed companies by next March, and will raise £200m through a convertible bond issue to help fund the split.On the down side, product quality and safety tester Intertek is struggling. It says the rate of organic revenue growth is slowing, as expected, in the second half of the year. Total year on year revenue growth for the January to October (inclusive) period was 28%, or 8% using constant exchange rates (CER). Organic revenue growth at CER was 4%.Results from real estate giant British Land also disappointed. The property company reported continuing declines in rental income, pre-tax profits and its portfolio valuation in the six months to September 30, but said it was seeing more positive trends in recent months.The retail side of Burberry outperformed the wholesale side as the luxury fashion group reported a rise in half-year revenues, thanks to favourable exchange rates. Total sales were up 6% to £572.4m from £539.1m a year earlier, but with the favourable movements of exchange rates stripped out, were down 5%. Profit before tax slipped to £78.4m from £97m. Brighter news came from housebuilder Barratt, which has confirmed the improvement in the UK housing market and forecasts its prices will have risen by up to 10% over the year.The upturn in the housing market is also benefiting self storage firm Big Yellow, which reported a 12% rise in half year adjusted pre-tax profit as occupancy levels improved. Revenue for the period slipped 3% to £29.2m, however.A drop in metal prices and profit taking has hurt miners. Lonmin, Rio Tinto and Xstrata feature among the heaviest fallers. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said last night that the Fed is monitoring currency markets "closely" and will conduct policy in a way that will "help ensure that the dollar is strong". Specialist business publisher Informa said in a trading update for the 10 months to 31 October that its publishing activities remain resilient and that its events business has not seen any worsening in trading.Tenanted pub group Enterprise Inns is the heaviest faller in the FTSE 250 after it posted a sharp fall in profits after a difficult year for the pub trade and said it expected profits to continue declining in the short term. Pre-tax profits for the year to September 30 fell to £208m from £263m on revenues that dropped to £811m from £880m.Thermal processing company Bodycote is another FTSE 250 company in the wars, after it said sales levels are deteriorating slightly, even from the depressed levels seen in the first half of the year. Support services firm VT Group posted a sharp rise in profits and revenues in the year to September 30 and said it looks forward to benefiting from increased outsourcing opportunities as the government seeks to cope with squeezed budgets.Budget airline easyJet said full year pre-tax profit halved after it was hit by higher fuel costs. For the year ended 30 September 2009 pre-tax profit fell to £54.7m from £110.2m the year before. Total revenue during the period increased 12.9% to £2.7bn.Trading remains in keeping with expectations at car rental firm Avis Europe, with revenue per day remaining ahead of last year's levels. After a very successful summer the year on year improvement in the overall rate per day has tailed off a bit, however.Earnings in the first half of 2010 are likely to be hit by uncertainty over contract awards at oil field services provider Wellstream. The company's shares sagged as it flagged potential delays with contract awards outside of Brazil relating to its framework agreement with Brazilian oil producer Petrobras.