London close: Stocks hit by fears over growth, US earnings

Fears over economic growth and a raft of disappointing earnings in the States weighed heavily on global markets on Wednesday, while a number of heavyweight stocks going ex-dividend dampened the FTSE 100 in London.Bank of America (BofA) was the first major US bank to miss forecasts this earnings season, while results from Intel, Yahoo and Abbott Laboratories also failed to impress. Nervousness surrounding Apple ahead of its quarterly report next week also hit markets in New York, causing Wall Street benchmarks to fall sharply after the opening bell.Global growth fears have hit European indices over the last few days after a surprise slowdown was reported in China in the first quarter. These concerns were compounded yesterday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised lower its forecasts for global economic growth, cutting estimates for the UK, US, Eurozone and China.Comments from Jens Weidmann, the head of Germany's Bundesbank, shook sentiment today. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Weidmann said that the recovery in Europe could take as much as a decade to overcome.Unconfirmed rumours of a German credit rating downgrade were also giving investors more reasons to be cautious this morning, as well as the UK unemployment rate rising from 7.8% to 7.9% in the three months to February.The minutes from the latest Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting released this morning showed that policymakers were split six to three in favour of maintaining the asset purchase programme at £375bn, as expected. They voted unanimously to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5%.FTSE 100: Tullow Oil dives on drilling plansTullow Oil saw its shares drop significantly after its joints venture partner Northern Petroleum gave an update on one of its wells at its joint venture project in French Guiana. Following an announcement by Northern Petroleum, the company confirmed that the GM-ES-3 well, which to-date has had no significant hydrocarbon shows, will be drilled deeper in the hope that it will provide information that is crucial to developing the companies' understanding of the exploration potential of the area. Fresnillo, Resolution, BAE Systems, BG Group, and Petrofac were all lower after going ex-dividend, meaning that new investors will not be able to get their hands on the latest dividend payments.Tesco was also lower after posting its first decline in annual profits in two decades. The supermarket giant reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £3.5bn in the year to February 23rd 2013, a 10.7% fall from the £3.92bn the previous year. Meanwhile, financial service company Hargreaves Lansdown said assets under administration (AuA) reached record levels in the last three months as investor confidence continued to improve. AuA increased by £4.7bn in the three months to March 31st to £35.1bn. Retailer Burberry was also a strong performer after the luxury brand delivered a rise in underlying revenue in the second half as strong growth in the Retail division continued to offset a weaker performance in Wholesale. ARM Holdings shares were given a lift after Goldman Sachs lifted its rating for the business from 'buy' to 'conviction buy'. The broker said: "the recent pull-back in ARM's share price provides an attractive entry point into what we continue to view as one of the most compelling structural growth stories in European technology."FTSE 250: Hikma Pharmaceuticals hit by target price cutHikma Pharmaceuticals was a heavy faller today after going ex-dividend and being hit by a target price cut from Jefferies, from 1,150p to 1,040p. The cut came after the group announced its plan to hold on to its global injectables business.Moneysupermarket.com rose after Westhouse Securities moved its target price from 195p to 210p and upgraded from 'neutral' to 'add'. Pubs group Marston's climbed despite warning on operating profit, saying that it expects to reduce operating costs by around £3.0m per year, with about half of this amount benefiting the results for the second half of this year.FTSE 100 - RisersHargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 949.00p +5.44%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,289.00p +1.82%Centrica (CNA) 383.00p +1.78%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,760.00p +1.27%United Utilities Group (UU.) 740.00p +1.16%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,317.00p +1.00%SSE (SSE) 1,536.00p +0.99%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,125.00p +0.90%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 395.00p +0.89%Carnival (CCL) 2,270.00p +0.80%FTSE 100 - FallersTullow Oil (TLW) 982.50p -9.03%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 254.10p -7.93%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,074.00p -7.49%Polymetal International (POLY) 706.00p -5.11%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,278.00p -4.63%Evraz (EVR) 158.50p -4.46%Antofagasta (ANTO) 906.00p -4.03%Tesco (TSCO) 369.75p -3.92%BG Group (BG.) 1,037.50p -3.85%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,854.50p -3.61%FTSE 250 - RisersLaird (LRD) 213.80p +3.04%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 117.60p +2.26%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 189.70p +2.15%LondonMetric Property (LMP) 112.70p +2.08%Betfair Group (BET) 788.00p +1.68%Sports Direct International (SPD) 424.00p +1.65%Marston's (MARS) 134.50p +1.59%Drax Group (DRX) 617.50p +1.48%Interserve (IRV) 478.00p +1.46%Lancashire Holdings (LRE) 811.50p +1.37%FTSE 250 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 320.10p -7.41%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 917.50p -6.85%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 162.30p -6.51%Bumi (BUMI) 242.60p -5.93%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 170.30p -5.70%Lonmin (LMI) 259.40p -5.57%Morgan Advance Materials (MGAM) 250.90p -4.78%Hays (HAS) 92.70p -4.73%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 387.40p -4.72%Fenner (FENR) 366.20p -4.66%