London midday: Miners drag Footsie down

Resource stocks have dragged Footise lower and with Wall Street predicted to open lower there is little prospect of a transatlantic boost in the afternoon session.Declining metal and oil prices are taking their toll on resource stocks. Copper miners Lonmin and Kazakhmys are among the big fallers, despite both stocks being upgraded by Deutsche Bank from "sell" to "hold". Mining giant Rio Tinto has further cut its debt pile with the sale to US packaging firm Bemis of the US food packaging division of aluminium subsidiary Alcan for $1.2bn. Oil and related businesses are also down with Wood Group, Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil all off the pace.Tobacco stocks are back in favour with BATs and IMPs on the rise as investors lean back towards defensive stalwarts as the market slides.Budget airline easyJet carried 0.8% more passengers in June than the same time last year, although the load factor eased 0.6% to 86.3%. The increase wasn't as impressive as May's 1.8% jump, but the carrier still ferried almost 4.15m people around last month. Passenger numbers for the past 12 months are up 7.9% year on year.Price comparison web site Moneysupermarket.com is trading in line with expectations, with little change in performance levels since the company's statement in April. The company said in April that trading had stabilised after a sharp drop in revenues in the first quarter. JJB Sports is looking at raising up to £50m, including a possible share issue. It's mulling the sale of further non-core assets, an extension in the maturity date of its working capital facility beyond September 2010, and a possible placing and open offer. Digital TV set-top box maker Pace is delivering the strong operating performance expected by the board. It said in April that it was seeing increased demand across many of the group's global markets, with the firm increasingly becoming the supplier of choice for many of its payTV operator customers.Housing repairs group Mears said the level of opportunities for its social housing division have never been higher after the group bagged three new contracts. The group's social housing division has been awarded £64m of new contracts, with options for a further £20m.Hazardous waste management firm Augean confirmed that it is no longer in talks with any party about a possible offer after One Fifty One pulled out of bid talks. Energy meter provider Bglobal shot up after it launched a new campaign for business customers seeking to comply with UK Government directives on carbon reduction.San Leon Energy says a "significant" discovery of natural gas in the Palo Pinto County, Regular (Gas) Field, District 07B, Texas, will produce at commercial rates.FTSE 100 - RisersReckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 2,819.00p +1.33%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,597.00p +1.08%Vodafone Group (VOD) 114.90p +1.06%British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,727.00p +0.99%FTSE 100 - FallersLonmin (LMI) 1,049.00p -9.49%Xstrata (XTA) 612.10p -6.52%Antofagasta (ANTO) 566.00p -5.43%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 597.50p -5.16%