London close: FTSE 100 slides as worries persist

Stocks finished firmly in negative territory as worries over the state of the global economy continued. Stocks finished lower in the US last night after downbeat comments from Federal Reserve president Ben Bernanke on US economic prospects. After a hesitant start, London's leading share index took a sharp turn downwards.Comments from Moody's this morning also set nerves on edge. The ratings agency still sees the UK's outlook as stable, but adds "As we've been saying for a while, in a situation of lower growth combined with weaker than expected fiscal consolidation, we would reconsider our stance."Miners were among the fallers in the FTSE 100, notably copper giant Antofagasta, which has warned that the ramp-up of the Esperanza plant in northern Chile is taking longer than expected, causing the group to scale back its total copper production guidance for 2011.But it was African Barrick Gold that really lost its shine. African Barrick responded to reports of a new "Super Profits Tax" on the mining industry in Tanzania, saying it is unaware of any such tax, but its protestations failed to convince the market.Not all was doom and gloom. Lloyds Banking Group, whose offloading of non-core assets has concluded with the sale of truck leasing company Hill Hire to US transportation group Hill Hire for £151m, finished on top of the pile in the FTSE 100.The spell of unusually hot weather over spring had drinkers queuing up at Britain's biggest pub operator Punch Taverns, a top riser today, helping it to a sharp rise in sales in the 12 weeks to the end of May. In the managed division, which comprises the pubs that are run by the company itself, like-for-like sales were up by 7.3% from the same period the previous year, with food sales particularly strong.Struggling care home operator Southern Cross is to cut up to 3,000 jobs as it seeks to stay afloat. Southern Cross, which looks after about 31,000 old age pensioners, has been hit by higher rent prices for the homes it operates. The company, whose shares moved higher after today's announcement, said it can still improve care while reducing staff levels. Revenue growth in Smiths Group's John Crane division - which supplies advanced technology industrial products for the major process industries - helped underlying sales in the first ten months push ahead of the prior year, offsetting weaker sales from Smiths Detection.Defence products group Ultra Electronics has won contracts worth £54m with engineer Rolls-Royce to supply reactor control and instrumentation systems for Royal Navy submarines. Ultra said it has been working on the equipment since 2004. Work on the contracts starts immediately and will continue until the end of 2014.A Carillion joint venture vehicle has been appointed the preferred bidder for a Canadian hospital contract, expected to be worth £390m to the contractor and support services group. Hospital Infrastructure Partners, the joint venture between Carillion, Canadian building contractor EllisDon and two investment firms, has been selected by Infrastructure Ontario and Halton Healthcare Services as the preferred bidder to finance, design, build and maintain the new replacement Oakville Hospital.Staffing business SThree reported a 23% increase in gross half year profit after an improved performance across all regions. The provider of permanent and contract staff said group gross profit rose to around £90m for the six month period ended 29 May 2011 from £74.3m in 2010.Namibia's competition commission has approved oil group Global Petroleum's takeover of Jupiter Petroleum, which holds prospective oil and gas interests off the coast of the southern African country. The shares are higher. A few more hurdles need to be cleared before the acquisition can go ahead, including due diligence investigations, obtaining necessary consents from governmental authorities and a report from an independent expert that the transaction is fair and reasonable to Global shareholders. FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 48.68p +2.26%Capita Group (CPI) 742.00p +0.61%Barclays (BARC) 263.15p +0.23%Inmarsat (ISAT) 603.00p +0.17%National Grid (NG.) 594.50p +0.17%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,136.00p +0.16%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,739.00p +0.12%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,124.50p +0.05%Reed Elsevier (REL) 546.00p 0.00%Aggreko (AGK) 1,909.00p 0.00%FTSE 100 - FallersAntofagasta (ANTO) 1,226.00p -4.96%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,952.00p -3.51%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,229.00p -3.30%Essar Energy (ESSR) 420.30p -3.27%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,026.00p -2.60%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,278.00p -2.59%IMI (IMI) 1,005.00p -2.52%Schroders (SDR) 1,559.00p -2.38%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,393.00p -2.38%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,192.00p -2.38%FTSE 250 - RisersPunch Taverns (PUB) 74.95p +6.77%Supergroup (SGP) 1,006.00p +2.71%Misys (MSY) 388.00p +2.43%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 109.30p +1.86%Kofax (KFX) 496.00p +1.64%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 464.00p +1.31%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 326.30p +1.21%Homeserve (HSV) 531.50p +1.14%Afren (AFR) 165.70p +1.04%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 190.30p +0.90%FTSE 250 - FallersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 415.00p -7.78%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 50.95p -7.36%PZ Cussons (PZC) 369.80p -4.67%Cobham (COB) 213.90p -4.34%London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 132.10p -4.14%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 451.30p -3.98%Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 1,913.00p -3.92%Computacenter (CCC) 450.60p -3.90%Petropavlovsk (POG) 734.00p -3.74%Britvic (BVIC) 416.20p -3.61%