London midday: Battering for blue chips

Footsie is deep in the mire after the late swoon on Wall Street last night and concerns over the health of the entire eurozone.Miners have tanked with metals prices, while banks are still edgy over the sovereign debt situation in Ireland. Kazakhymys, Fresnillo, Xstrata, Anglo American and Antofagasta are the big fallers in the mining sector, while among banks Lloyds Banking and Standard Chartered are bearing the brunt. It's another hefty day for company results. Profits soared at luxury fashion label Burberry in the six months to 30 September as sales of non-clothing items such as handbags jumped and the company extended its reach in emerging markets such as China and Brazil. Adjusted revenues (stripping out Burberry's discontinued Spanish business) were up by 21% from the same period the previous year to £641m. Adjusted pre-tax profits soared by 49% to £129m.Packaging group Rexam is enjoying a rare spell in the spotlight, sitting atop the Footsie leaderboard. The company is trading on track in both beverage cans and plastics, with cost savings coming through as planned and capacity being added in South America.Chip maker Arm is the top performer after a stunning set of results from German chip group Infineon, where fiscal fourth-quarter earnings rose to €390m from €11m last year as revenue soared 55% to €942m.Big employers looking for swanky new offices in central London have pushed occupancy rates at real estate giant British Land higher during the first half and net asset value is up over 4%. Panmure Gordon reiterated its "buy" recommendation after a "very predictable" yet "positive" set of results, but the market was possibly expecting more and has marked the shares down.Taylor Wimpey has been busy. The housebuilder is fully sold for 2010 and expects full-year profit to be at the top end of expectations, it's got a news finance director and has agreed a revised £950m credit facility with its banks. The squeeze on public sector spending has already affected telecoms group Cable & Wireless Worldwide, with revenues down by 1.6% in the last six months. Turnover came in at £1.12bn, against £1.14bn, in the half-year to September, though the largely-UK focused telecoms group, which demerged from Cable & Wireless Communications in March, lifted pre-tax profits from £22m to £53m. Underlying operating profits rose by 4.4% to £214m.Internet services group TalkTalk reported a 12.4% increase in half year revenue as it reiterated its full year guidance of 6-8% revenue growth. The UK's second biggest broadband company said pre-tax profit increased to £70m for the 6 months to 30 September 2010 compared to £68m the same time a year before.A strong recovery in advertising helped bring about a sharp rise in revenues at broadcaster ITV in the third quarter, though growth in ad sales are seen slowing in the fourth quarter. Group revenues climbed by 11% from the same period last year to £1.456bn, with advertising revenues climbing by 16%. Ad revenues are currently forecast to be up by 10% in the fourth quarter. No-frills airline easyJet said full year profit surged nearly threefold on rising consumer demand and cheaper fuel. The group also announced it would pay its first dividend in 2012.Shareholders in pubs groups Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns might be forgiven for heading out for a stiff drink later today as both shares are sharply lower.Enterprise slipped back into the red last year but says its trading steadied sufficiently in the last six months that a dividend is a possibility in the future. But this was a major disappointment to some, with at least one broker was optimistically suggesting the divi could be restored with the current set of results. The debt-laden group, which owns over 6,800 pubs, posted a pre-tax loss of £31m in the year to September, against an £11m profit last time. Net debt at the year-end was £3.3bn compared to £3.7bn at the beginning of the financial year.Punch, meanwhile, is to part company with its finance director, Phil Dutton. He will step down from the board next month and leave the group in March.Sales have continued rising and margins have been maintained since JD Sports Fashion's last update in September, the trendy sportswear retailer said today.Premier Oil, yesterday's hot stock on talk the Koreans are lining up a bid, is on course to meet full-year production targets, though bad weather has held up further exploration in the potentially lucrative North Sea Catcher field.Another bid stock in the oil sector, oil field services provider Wellstream, continues to trade in line with expectations, although there's no more news on any takeover.Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com said trading in the first few weeks of the fourth quarter has been strong with revenues still more than 10% ahead of the same period last year.Fashion retailer French Connection has seen sales from its own stores fall slightly short of expectations in the 15 weeks to 13 November, but this has been offset by further growth in sales of its clothes to other stores.