London midday: Shares give back some gains

The FTSE 100 is firmly in the red after yesterday's strong gains amid weakness in the mining and retail sectors.With metals prices falling back following a strong run recently, miners such as Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Kazakhmys are weak. Retailers are in focus, with Next one of the top risers in the FTSE 100 after the fashion chain said it remains on track to meet full-year profit forecasts even though it lost an estimated £22m of full price sales in the run-up to Christmas due to the snow. Like for like sales between 1 August and 24 December tumbled 6.1%, worse than analysts expected.Meanwhile, entertainment media retailer HMV is in serious strife with a warning that it may struggle to meet bank covenants after sales tumbled in December. "Given the difficult trading conditions over Christmas and the likely outturn for the year, the board now expects that compliance with the April covenant test under the group's bank facility will be tight and is taking further mitigating actions during the next four months to address this," it said. Also in retail, miniature war games specialist Games Workshop has admitted a drop in sales means full-year profits will miss estimates. "The board of Games Workshop currently believes that, as a result of reduced volumes, pre-tax profits in respect of the year ending 29 May 2011 are unlikely to meet current market consensus estimates," it said Wednesday.Fast growing pizza delivery firm Domino's Pizza will deliver an extra topping of profits after a strong finish to the year. System sales for the 13 week period to 26 December increased by 17.8% to £132.5m from £112.4m in the corresponding period of 2009.AB Foods and Marks & Spencer are lower after a report that the cost of a loaf of bread is set to rise this month after UK wheat prices hit an all-time high. Industry executives and traders have quietly told wholesale consumers, such as bakers and pasta and biscuit producers, to expect price increases over the next two to three weeks, following a round of hikes in October and November, the FT reports.Oil fabrications giant Petrofac has confirmed the appointment of Andy Inglis, the former head of BP's exploration and production and who was in charge of safety at the time of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.India-focused Hardy Oil and Gas has plugged and abandoned the KG-D9-B3 well on its D9 (KG-DWN-2001/1) exploration licence. Hardy's second exploratory well in the Krishna Godavari basin on the East Coast of India drilled down 3,829 metres. There were gas shows of 6-9%, but tests suggests water gradient in the sand packages. Oil explorer Gulf Keystone shares picked up after a bullish update on its Shaikan-3 shallow appraisal well, which tested the Cretaceous intervals in the immediate vicinity its huge Shaikan-1 discovery. As a result of the tests, log evaluations and recovered fluid samples, Gulf Keystone's current P50 (probable) to P10 (possible) estimate of Garagu oil in place volumes is 220m to 2.2bn barrels. Trading has continued to improve at banking software company Gresham Computing which made a profit in the fourth quarter. Business had already improved during the first three quarters of 2010 when the company returned to a first half profit of £0.1m.FTSE 100 - RisersARM Holdings (ARM) 449.50p +2.65%Next (NXT) 2,055.00p +1.99%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 101.90p +1.70%Cairn Energy (CNE) 437.50p +1.37%Centrica (CNA) 335.90p +1.14%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 675.70p +1.14%Aviva (AV.) 411.50p +1.13%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,278.00p +1.11%Bunzl (BNZL) 738.50p +0.96%G4S (GFS) 256.30p +0.71%FTSE 100 - FallersWeir Group (WEIR) 1,724.00p -2.87%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,576.00p -2.84%Anglo American (AAL) 3,312.00p -2.79%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,604.00p -2.73%Invensys (ISYS) 351.40p -2.69%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,637.00p -2.68%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,492.00p -2.41%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,116.00p -2.28%Kingfisher (KGF) 261.20p -2.17%IMI (IMI) 914.00p -1.98%FTSE 250 - RisersCSR (CSR) 372.10p +6.22%Sports Direct International (SPD) 174.40p +5.06%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 409.30p +3.36%JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 329.20p +2.88%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 32.95p +2.62%Premier Farnell (PFL) 302.00p +2.27%Lancashire Holdings (LRE) 562.50p +1.90%Regus (RGU) 88.90p +1.83%Amlin (AML) 415.50p +1.74%Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 633.00p +1.61%FTSE 250 - FallersBetfair Group (BET) 927.00p -4.58%FirstGroup (FGP) 394.10p -4.48%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 399.10p -4.04%COLT Group SA (COLT) 132.40p -3.92%Ashtead Group (AHT) 165.00p -3.90%Hays (HAS) 128.50p -3.82%Charter International (CHTR) 822.50p -3.63%Centamin Egypt Ltd. (CEY) 169.80p -3.58%ITE Group (ITE) 243.50p -3.41%WH Smith (SMWH) 485.00p -3.39%