London close: Banks and miners drag Footsie lower

Leading UK shares lurched lower in the afternoon as US shares weakened and investors waited nervously for President Obama's new bank reforms.The US President's proposals prohibit commercial banks from owning or investing in hedge funds or owning, investing or advising private equity funds, while also restricting their proprietary trading activities.The news came too late for London to react, but UK blue chips fell sharply in the last hour ahead of the short speech. Banks and miners were the main drags with the latter still friendless on concerns about demand from China. Pundits are predicting that the Chinese authorities will step up their efforts to prevent the Chinese economy from overheating, after figures today revealed that the economy grew by 8.7% in 2009, and by 10.9% (year on year) in the fourth quarter.Lonmin was one of the better performers, while the big losers in the sector today were Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and Anglo American.Banks were out of favour after Barclays chairman Marcus Agius bemoaned the 'tsunami of regulatory pressure, public pressure, opinion pressure and political pressure' facing the financial services in general, and banking in particular.Standard Chartered, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking all featured among the worst performers of the day.Airlines helped to offset some of that weakness. British Airways was one of the top risers on a report that any strike action planned by its staff will not take place over the Easter holiday.Big rival Ryanair is also mulling price hikes next year, according to chief executive Michael O'Leary. Average fares out of Dublin could rise from the beginning of its next financial year in April, he said.EasyJet increased total revenue per seat by a bigger than expected 4.2% in its first quarter as 11m people flew with the budget airline, which says higher revenue will cancel any losses suffered during Britain's big freeze.Water company United Utilities went well even though it intends to cut its dividend to 30p in fiscal 2010/11 from 34.3p as it seeks to conserve cash to meet the requirements of the industry regulator's price review. Brokers said the cut could have been much worse. Severn Trent is up in sympathy.Tullow Oil said its Tweneboa-2 exploratory appraisal well, some 6 km southeast of the Tweneboa-1 discovery, has intersected a significant combined hydrocarbon column.Supermarket giant Morrisons is lower despite reporting a 6.5% rise in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period, beating comparable figures from rivals Tesco and Sainsbury. In the 6 weeks to 3 January, like for like sales grew by 6.5% (6.8% including fuel), while total sales excluding fuel rose by 11.2% (10.8% including fuel).London Stock Exchange revenue fell 9% during the third quarter, reflecting 'testing' market conditions, particularly in cash equities trading. Revenue dropped to £154.9m in the three months to 31 December, down from £169.4m a year ago, a 12% decline at constant currency, although it's up 4% on the previous quarter.BSkyB has lost its latest appeal over the forced sale of most of its stake in ITV and could now have to cut its holding to below 7.5%.Pubs group Enterprise Inns is leading a pub sector rally on a statement that Christmas business was strong. The group said there are signs that trade in what it termed its 'better quality pubs' is continuing to stabilise. Across the whole estate the year on year decline in average net income per pub eased to around 4% in the 16 weeks to 16 January, from around 8% during the last financial year.Condom and sandals maker SSL International said it remains on track to achieve its target of increasing earnings per share by 50% over the three years to March 2012.Fixed income fund manager BlueBay has delivered a bigger than expected 10.4% increase in assets under management (AuM) for the second quarter and is optimistic about 2010.Payment services group PayPoint reported a 3% rise in revenues and said trading has been 'satisfactory'.The last quarter of 2009 saw funds under management at wealth manager St James's Place rise by more than a billion pounds.Financial adviser Begbies Traynor said interim pre-tax profit soared 32% as the number of insolvencies increased but it expects full year results to be slightly below current market forecasts after a weak performance at its tax practice.Shares in Petropavlovsk gained after the Russia-focused miner said it will resume dividend payments after hitting its production targets for the year.FTSE 100 - RisersBritish Airways (BAY) 209.50p +3.61%United Utilities Group (UU.) 525.00p +3.24%International Power (IPR) 319.70p +2.47%Reed Elsevier (REL) 520.50p +1.96%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 35.32p -7.05%Fresnillo (FRES) 728.00p -6.19%Anglo American (AAL) 2,488.00p -6.15%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,280.00p -6.02%FTSE 250 - RisersEnterprise Inns (ETI) 113.50p +19.60%Punch Taverns (PUB) 81.05p +8.87%easyJet (EZJ) 383.80p +5.15%PZ Cussons (PZC) 241.50p +2.85%FTSE 250 - FallersAquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 380.20p -4.95%PayPoint (PAY) 400.50p -4.64%BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 350.00p -4.24%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 212.90p -4.23%