London midday: Shares unchanged after Bank holds rates

Shares are little changed after the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.The decision was expected, while the ECB is expected to raise interest rates for the first time since they were slashed in the wake of the financial crisis.Turning to stocks, the retail sector has come back down to earth following a brief respite yesterday when M&S unexpectedly posted quarterly sales growth.Carpetright is lower after another warning on profits. The flooring and carpet retailer says it now expects pre-tax profits for the year to 30 April to be in line with those achieved in 2009, when trading was hit hard by the economic crisis. It had previously said that profits for the current year would be below 2010 but ahead of 2009.Bicycle and car part retailer Halfords is sharply lower after it predicted a continuing tough trading environment as it posted a sharp fall in like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 1 April. Like-for-like sales from the company's retail outlets were down by 6.8% from the same period the previous year, resulting in a 5.5% fall over the full year. Strength in the banking sector is offsetting retail weakness. RBS, Lloyds and Barclays post gains following news that two of their European peers, Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo and Germany's Commerzbank, are planning to raise funds.Talvivaara Mining is the heaviest faller among larger stocks. The Finnish miner was the worst performing FTSE 250 stock in early trading on Thursday after it lowered annual production guidance to take into account longer than previously anticipated maintenance breaks. The company believes it realistic to anticipate a production shortfall of 5,000-8,000 tons of nickel from the previous guidance and so has revised full year production guidance for 2011 to 22,000-28,000 tons of nickel. In the first quarter of 2011 international recruitment firm Hays, also lower today, saw like-for-like (LFL) growth in net fees in every region except the UK & Ireland, where spending cuts in the public sector are starting to bite. For the group as a whole, fees were up 16% on a year earlier on a LFL basis. "Overall, 21 countries grew net fees by more than 20%," revealed Alistair Cox, chief executive of Hays.Electronics and maintenance products supplier Electrocomponents expects pre-tax profits for the year to 31 March to be marginally above previous expectations after strong international sales helped drive sales above £1bn for the first time in the group's history. Paper and packaging firm Mondi is to hive off its South African packaging business. Mondi will demerge Mondi Packaging South Africa (MPSA) as it believes MPSA's future growth plans, especially with regard to its rigid plastics business, are constrained by the Mondi Group's differing strategic focus. Anglo-Swedish drugs leviathan AstraZeneca has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its thyroid cancer treatment Vandetanib.Plastics group Victrex reported record half year sales volume of around 1,434 tonnes, an increase of 22% from the same time last year. The group, which makes and sells polymers, said the record 752 tonnes sold in the second quarter of this year was 10% above the 682 tonnes sold in the first quarter, "reinforcing the positive underlying trends in the Victrex Polymer Solutions business."FTSE 100 - RisersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 43.40p +1.45%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 669.70p +1.41%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 62.66p +1.13%Old Mutual (OML) 144.00p +1.12%Barclays (BARC) 298.05p +1.10%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,457.00p +0.97%Sage Group (SGE) 278.20p +0.87%National Grid (NG.) 595.00p +0.85%Invensys (ISYS) 337.70p +0.84%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,694.00p +0.83%FTSE 100 - FallersGKN (GKN) 201.90p -3.49%3i Group (III) 274.40p -3.04%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,426.00p -2.84%Cairn Energy (CNE) 446.10p -2.26%Man Group (EMG) 242.60p -1.98%British Land Co (BLND) 546.00p -1.97%Schroders (SDR) 1,801.00p -1.91%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 383.30p -1.82%ITV (ITV) 77.20p -1.78%Xstrata (XTA) 1,472.50p -1.77%FTSE 250 - RisersNorthgate (NTG) 323.00p +1.83%RPC Group (RPC) 301.40p +1.31%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 366.10p +1.24%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 452.30p +0.94%Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 518.50p +0.88%TR Property Inv Trust Sigma Shares (TRYS) 84.70p +0.83%Centamin Egypt Ltd. (CEY) 147.20p +0.75%BTG (BGC) 233.60p +0.73%Beazley (BEZ) 127.90p +0.71%Elementis (ELM) 158.70p +0.70%FTSE 250 - FallersBwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 151.10p -9.19%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 540.00p -6.90%Halfords Group (HFD) 346.00p -6.13%Betfair Group (BET) 947.50p -4.49%Hays (HAS) 114.30p -4.35%Rank Group (RNK) 142.30p -4.30%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 859.00p -3.70%Lamprell (LAM) 346.00p -3.70%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 87.60p -3.68%Britvic (BVIC) 384.50p -3.66%