London midday: FTSE 100 slips below 6,000

The top share index is back below 6,000 points as concerns over global economic growth weigh on sentiment.The IMF lowered its US 2011 GDP growth forecast by -0.2 percentage points, to 2.8%. Nor did Britain emerge unscathed. The IMF revised down its growth expectations this year from 2%to 1.7%. Meanwhile, the severity of the incident at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant has been raised to 7 from level 5 the highest on an internationally recognized scale, an official at Japan´s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) announced last night. Miners are in the firing line amid a metals sell-off. Kazakh pair Kazakhmys and ENRC, South America-focused Antofagasta and global titan Rio Tinto are among the worst hit in the sector.However, the lower oil price has lifted British Airways owner IAG and budget airline easyJet. Cruise operator Carnival is also buoyant.Turning to company announcements, there was more good news from Brazil for BG Group as the oil and gas firm said a test of its offshore Guara Norte well confirmed productivity of about 6,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). "Production potential from this well is estimated at around 50,000 bopd," the company said.Sticking with oil, Russia's deputy prime minister Igor Sechin has stood down as a director on the board of Rosneft, casting further doubt on the state oil company's Arctic exploration agreement with BP. Sechin stepped down following an order from Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev that ministers could not sit on the board of state companies. He was seen as key backer of the alliance between BP and Rosneft. Insurance titan Aviva is to raise £381m through the sale of part of its stake in Dutch and Belgian subsidiary Delta Lloyd. The insurer said 25m Delta Lloyd ordinary shares, representing 15% of Delta's total shares in issue, have been placed with institutional investors at a price of €17.25 per share. Pub group Punch Taverns falls back after reporting that pre-tax profits in the 28 weeks to 5 March fell to £61m from £66m over the same period a year ago. "Despite the challenging UK consumer environment, we remain confident of making further progress in the second half of the financial year. We have had a good start to the third quarter and are on track to meet our full year expectations," said chief executive Ian Dyson.Investment company Alliance Trust saw its net asset value per share rise 16.2% over the year to 439.0p, With full year dividend payments of 8.395p factored in the total return for the year was 18.7%. The full year dividend has been hiked by 3.0% from the previous year, representing the 44th consecutive year of dividend growth.Grupo Financiero HSBC, a Mexican subsidiary of global banking giant HSBC, has agreed to sell its pension funds management business, HSBC Afore, for around $198m, to US group Principal Financial Group.Ultra Electronics is on the attack after the defence electronics supplier won a contract worth about $25m (£15m) to supply the US Navy with sonobuoys, which detect submarines. FTSE 100 - RisersCarnival (CCL) 2,437.00p +3.00%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 221.90p +2.97%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,860.00p +1.14%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,995.00p +0.96%Unilever (ULVR) 1,920.00p +0.84%Compass Group (CPG) 554.00p +0.82%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,235.00p +0.82%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,272.00p +0.79%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,970.00p +0.56%Tesco (TSCO) 397.10p +0.48%FTSE 100 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,435.00p -3.88%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 935.00p -3.76%Invensys (ISYS) 323.50p -3.11%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,439.00p -3.10%ARM Holdings (ARM) 564.50p -3.09%Xstrata (XTA) 1,480.50p -3.08%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,610.00p -3.07%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,534.00p -3.03%GKN (GKN) 198.60p -2.93%Anglo American (AAL) 3,242.00p -2.92%FTSE 250 - RisersNational Express Group (NEX) 249.30p +4.18%Berendsen (BRSN) 496.10p +2.10%WH Smith (SMWH) 459.70p +1.97%easyJet (EZJ) 328.40p +1.89%Greene King (GNK) 452.20p +1.25%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 875.00p +1.16%Debenhams (DEB) 64.95p +0.93%Redrow (RDW) 119.00p +0.93%BBA Aviation (BBA) 206.70p +0.83%Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 526.00p +0.77%FTSE 250 - FallersFerrexpo (FXPO) 443.60p -6.61%Punch Taverns (PUB) 74.55p -6.23%Misys (MSY) 320.30p -3.87%CPP Group (CPP) 124.10p -3.80%Afren (AFR) 162.50p -3.56%COLT Group SA (COLT) 148.80p -3.38%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 613.00p -3.16%Aveva Group (AVV) 1,577.00p -3.13%Senior (SNR) 150.60p -2.96%Fenner (FENR) 352.50p -2.84%