London midday: Equities in wait and see mode

Investors are keeping their powder dry ahead of the release of the European bank stress tests after the close of business today. Stocks are easier on balance, despite signs that the UK economy is picking up. Gross domestic product grew by 1.1% during the quarter according the Office of National Statistics (ONS), ahead of expectations of a 0.6% expansion and the strongest growth since the first quarter of 2006.Banks feature prominently among the losers ahead of the stress test results, with Standard Chartered, HSBC and Lloyds nursing the biggest losses.Telecoms titan BT is also out of favour after industry watchdog Ofcom ruled out changes to the company's funding that would have allowed it to raise wholesale prices to help close the huge deficit in its pension fund.The best performing blue-chip is chip designer ARM Holdings ahead of interim results next week. Bumper figures from Microsoft to follow those from Apple suggests the company may announce sparkling figures on Tuesday. Microsoft, like Apple, is a user of ARM's intellectual property and has recently signed a multi-year contract to licence ARM technology.Mobile phone network operator Vodafone returned to organic revenue growth in the April to June quarter of 2010 for the first time since the near global recession. Group revenue increased by 4.8% to £11.3bn and group service revenue increased by 4.9% to £10.6bn. United Utilities says current trading reflects lower prices for 2010/11, revenue pressures from reduced water volumes, bad debt and anticipated rise in property rates. However, the firm, which revealed a drop in full-year profits in May due to high borrowing costs, said these negatives are being partly offset by a drop in power costs.The response to results from Britvic has been sour, even though the soft drinks giant saw revenue increase by 16.2% from a year earlier to £289.5m in its third quarter. The underlying GB, International and Irish businesses saw a combined revenue increase of 6.9%. Oil and gas exploration and production company Salamander Energy has plugged and abandoned its Tom Hum Xanh-1X exploration well, offshore southern Vietnam, but the shares have held up well. "Salamander's drilling campaign will be moving on to the proven Kutei basin, offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia," said James Menzies, chief executive officer of Salamander.Also in the oil sector, BP has temporarily suspended relief well activities at the MC252 well site in the Gulf of Mexico due to "potentially adverse weather" linked to Tropical Storm Bonnie.Close Brothers still thinks it will deliver a "solid" performance for the full-year, although funds under management eased in the last three months and it's making less per trade at its market making arm.Multi-millionaire property developer Christian Candy's has launched a mandatory offer to buy all the shares in Metals Exploration he doesn't own for 13p each.FTSE 100 - RisersARM Holdings (ARM) 338.10p +6.82%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,192.00p +2.49%Wolseley (WOS) 1,414.00p +2.46%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,183.00p +1.98%Hammerson (HMSO) 385.00p +1.85%Land Securities Group (LAND) 611.00p +1.33%British Land Co (BLND) 462.10p +1.18%Schroders (SDR) 1,253.00p +1.13%Cobham (COB) 243.10p +1.08%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,347.00p +1.05%FTSE 100 - FallersIntertek Group (ITRK) 1,662.00p -2.18%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 558.50p -2.02%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,806.50p -1.93%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,478.00p -1.47%TUI Travel (TT.) 228.50p -1.42%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 646.00p -1.37%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,628.00p -1.27%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,182.50p -1.26%BT Group (BT.A) 139.30p -1.21%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 62.85p -1.15%