London midday: Stocks dive as worries grip markets

The top share index is deep in the red now as global economic worries continue to overshadow trading.Stocks finished lower in the US last night after downbeat comments from Federal Reserve president Ben Bernanke on US economic prospects. After a hesitant start, London's leading share index took a sharp turn downwards. Comments from Moody's this morning have also set nerves on edge. The ratings agency still sees the UK's outlook as stable, but adds "As we've been saying for a while, in a situation of lower growth combined with weaker than expected fiscal consolidation, we would reconsider our stance."Miners are among the fallers in the FTSE 100 with silver specialist Fresnillo and Antofagasta sharply lower.In stocks news, the spell of unusually hot weather over spring had drinkers queuing up at Punch Taverns, a top riser today, helping Britain's biggest pub operator to a sharp rise in sales in the 12 weeks to the end of May. In the managed division, which comprises the pubs that are run by the company itself, like-for-like sales were up by 7.3% from the same period the previous year, with food sales particularly strong.Revenue growth in Smiths Group's John Crane division - which supplies advanced technology industrial products for the major process industries - helped underlying sales in the first ten months push ahead of the prior year, offsetting weaker sales from Smiths Detection.Defence products group Ultra Electronics has won contracts worth £54m with engineer Rolls-Royce to supply reactor control and instrumentation systems for Royal Navy submarines. Ultra said it has been working on the equipment since 2004. Work on the contracts starts immediately and will continue until the end of 2014.A Carillion joint venture vehicle has been appointed the preferred bidder for a Canadian hospital contract, expected to be worth £390m to the contractor and support services group. Hospital Infrastructure Partners, the joint venture between Carillion, Canadian building contractor EllisDon and two investment firms, has been selected by Infrastructure Ontario and Halton Healthcare Services as the preferred bidder to finance, design, build and maintain the new replacement Oakville Hospital.Staffing business SThree reported a 23% increase in gross half year profit after an improved performance across all regions. The provider of permanent and contract staff said group gross profit rose to around £90m for the six month period ended 29 May 2011 from £74.3m in 2010.Namibia's competition commission has approved oil group Global Petroleum's takeover of Jupiter Petroleum, which holds prospective oil and gas interests off the coast of the southern African country. The shares are higher. A few more hurdles need to be cleared before the acquisition can go ahead, including due diligence investigations, obtaining necessary consents from governmental authorities and a report from an independent expert that the transaction is fair and reasonable to Global shareholders. FTSE 100 - RisersCapita Group (CPI) 744.50p +0.95%Serco Group (SRP) 588.00p +0.68%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,192.00p +0.50%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.84p +0.48%Aggreko (AGK) 1,915.00p +0.31%Inmarsat (ISAT) 602.00p 0.00%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,459.00p -0.07%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,735.00p -0.12%National Grid (NG.) 592.50p -0.17%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 833.00p -0.18%FTSE 100 - FallersJohnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,934.00p -4.40%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,242.00p -3.72%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,377.00p -3.50%Xstrata (XTA) 1,331.50p -2.85%IMI (IMI) 1,004.00p -2.62%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,238.00p -2.60%Essar Energy (ESSR) 423.60p -2.51%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 799.00p -2.50%Lonmin (LMI) 1,532.00p -2.48%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,953.00p -2.35%FTSE 250 - RisersPunch Taverns (PUB) 75.55p +7.62%Misys (MSY) 396.00p +4.54%Drax Group (DRX) 492.90p +2.30%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 141.00p +2.17%Kofax (KFX) 498.20p +2.09%Supergroup (SGP) 999.00p +1.99%SThree (STHR) 399.90p +1.65%Victrex (VCT) 1,475.00p +1.51%Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 178.00p +1.25%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 463.60p +1.22%FTSE 250 - FallersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 411.60p -8.53%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 52.00p -5.45%Petropavlovsk (POG) 732.50p -3.93%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 452.00p -3.83%Anglo Pacific Group (APF) 297.20p -3.82%Cobham (COB) 215.80p -3.49%Lamprell (LAM) 378.40p -3.35%London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 133.20p -3.34%Hunting (HTG) 725.50p -3.14%Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 1,929.00p -3.11%---RG