London afternoon: Miners spooked by China

Footsie staged a half-hearted recovery over the lunch time session but the market remains lower on balance, largely as a result of weak miners, which have taken fright at further attempts by the Chinese authorities to cool down the Chinese economy.China has raised bank reserve requirements by half a percentage point, to a record level of 19.50%. It's the fifth hike in the requirement since October and is designed to stop the banks having too much cash sloshing around to lend to customers.Gold miner African Barrick defies the trend, as it features on Citigroup's list of likely takeover candidates, but sector peers BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Vedanta take a battering, as does Anglo American, even though it doubled profits in 2010 and is merging its UK cement, aggregates and ready-mixed concrete business with French giant Lafarge. Underlying earnings leapt to $4.98bn from $2.57bn in 2009 on revenue up 34% to $32.93bn. Profit before tax was up 171% to $10.93bn and underlying earnings per share of $4.13 was better than expected. Rio Tinto and Aquarius Platinum are also firmly in the red. Support services group Rentokil is nursing heavy losses after it missed forecasts in 2010 as the cold weather in December added to the woes of its parcels delivery business City Link. Pre-tax profits tumbled from £60m to £15.3m after huge write-offs of £150.5m. The firm swung from profits of £26.8m to a loss of £55.7m in the last three months of the year if all of the one-off charges of £110m are included. Similarly, industrial engineer Charter is sharply lower. The company improved during 2010, but weakness in Europe, where the company makes most of its money, held the business back. Profit before tax jumped 55% to £144.1m last year and by 18% to £148.2m before exceptional items. Revenue was up 3.6% at £1.72bn.Go-Ahead. is racing ahead though. More people are leaving their cars at home and taking the bus, according to Keith Ludeman, the chief executive of the public transport group "Whilst rail remains difficult to predict, we now expect our full year operating profit across our rail and bus businesses to be higher than we previously anticipated and around the same as achieved last year (FY'10: £101.0m)." Ludeman said.Anite has traded better than expected in the past three months with growing 4G demand lifting orders at its handsets and networks businesses to record levels and offsetting a flat travel side. Sales have been slower than expected at mobile antenna maker Sarantel in the first five months of its financial year due to internal technical problems at two of its big customers. The firm, which raised £1.25m in December, said it is confident that once the clients have resolved the issues, their orders will return in the second half of the financial year. The shares are down more than 20%.Shares in Lansdowne Oil & Gas have shot up again and, unlike last week, when the directors of the company said they were mystified by the sharp price rise, the catalyst for the latest rise is a resource update for the company's Celtic Sea Acreage.Profits for the full year are expected to be significantly ahead of market expectations at pipe and tubing specialist Tricorn. The company said trading in the second half of its financial year has remained strong, with demand from the Energy and Transport sectors especially vibrant.