London midday: Stocks erase losses after Spanish auction

- Spanish bond auction lifts sentiment- Miners lower on concerns over Japan- Chemring drops profit warning.London's blue-chip index was trading broadly flat by midday, having erased all of the morning's losses, after a solid Spanish bond auction eased concerns about the heavily indebted Eurozone country.Miners were providing a drag on the FTSE 100 this morning on concerns about Japan, the world's third-largest economy. The Japanese government has reduced its view on personal consumption, housing construction, exports, imports and industrial output for the first 10 months of the year. "The Japanese economy is on the way to recovery at a moderate pace, partly due to reconstruction demand, while some weak movements are seen recently," the Cabinet Office said in its monthly report. JPMorgan Securities Japan and BNP Paribas are forecasting a 0.3% and 0.9% decline in third-quarter Japanese gross domestic product (GDP), respectively.Turning to Spain, the Treasury raised €3.607bn in short-term debt this morning, above the top-end of its target rage of €2.5-3.5bn. Borrowing costs dropped dramatically and demand increased significantly compared with the previous auction in July. According to the country's national statistics institute, Spanish GDP declined at a 1.3% annual rate in the second quarter, compared with the initial estimate of a 1% contraction. Markets continue to wait official news from the European Central Bank (ECB) regarding its proposed bond-buying programme. However, analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that recent market chatter has shown some consistency: "There have been numerous reports recently that claim to have inside knowledge on the matter. While they all differ slightly, there is also a lot of consistency. Based on these reports, it looks likely that the ECB will target short term debt yields, which will include a non-fixed yield cap on Spanish and Italian bonds," he said.However, ECB member Jörg Asmussen has said over the weekend that the EFSF bailout fund must take the lead in the purchase of any sovereign debt before the ECB steps in. "The ECB council will continue to decide in full independence whether, when and how it will purchase bonds on the secondary market," he said.FTSE 100: Kingfisher, G4S and miners weigh on benchmark indexB&Q owner Kingfisher was the heaviest faller of the day after Bank of America Merrill Lunch downgraded its rating on the stock to 'underperform'. Security giant G4S fell after expressing disappointment over the problems related to its Olympics contract, saying that it will incur a £50m loss on the contract in the first half. Meanwhile, the company said that a restructuring of its overhead structure will lead the loss of 1,100 jobs. Nevertheless, the firm revealed that turnover at constant exchange rates rose 7.5% while profits were flat. Miners were firmly out of favour this morning on concerns over the Japanese economy. BHP Billiton fell after announcing the sale of its Yeelirrie uranium deposit in Western Australia to Cameco for $430m. BHP and sector peers ENRC, Kazakhmys and Vedanta were also lower after Morgan Stanley reduced its target price for all four stocks. Drugs giant AstraZeneca was lower after saying that it has appointed Roche's Chief Operating Officer as its new Chief Executive Officer. Meanwhile, the firm also announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation to its ZINFORO treatment. Sector peer GlaxoSmithKline was suffering from a downgrade by UBS.Bunzl, the international distribution and outsourcing group, fell despite saying that pre-tax profits and revenues in the first half rose 9% and 7%, respectively. FTSE 250: Chemring drops after profit warningDefence contractor Chemring dropped after it issued a profits warning, saying a computer glitch and production delays are likely to wipe £15m off full-year earnings as it considers a takeover offer from private equity giant Carlyle.Heading the other way was chemicals group Yule Catto after reporting a pre-tax profit of £56m in the first half, up from £52.4m the year before. Sales, however, fell to £603.3m from £664.3m.FTSE 100 - RisersITV (ITV) 85.00p +1.74%Carnival (CCL) 2,128.00p +1.72%Barclays (BARC) 190.20p +1.60%CRH (CRH) 1,149.00p +1.59%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,606.00p +1.52%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 332.90p +1.22%United Utilities Group (UU.) 719.50p +1.20%BT Group (BT.A) 217.50p +1.07%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 332.60p +0.94%Glencore International (GLEN) 370.00p +0.86%FTSE 100 - FallersKingfisher (KGF) 275.60p -3.54%Evraz (EVR) 239.70p -2.88%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 642.00p -2.80%G4S (GFS) 259.10p -2.67%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 330.50p -2.48%Bunzl (BNZL) 1,084.00p -2.43%Vedanta Resources (VED) 906.00p -2.00%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 364.30p -1.99%IMI (IMI) 840.50p -1.93%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,587.00p -1.79%FTSE 250 - RisersYule Catto & Co (YULC) 152.80p +7.76%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 138.10p +5.42%Ted Baker (TED) 1,000.00p +3.41%Renishaw (RSW) 1,568.00p +2.55%Dialight (DIA) 1,099.00p +2.33%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 578.50p +2.12%Home Retail Group (HOME) 95.15p +2.04%Homeserve (HSV) 216.30p +1.93%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 202.40p +1.71%COLT Group SA (COLT) 119.20p +1.71%FTSE 250 - FallersChemring Group (CHG) 324.00p -12.55%Bumi (BUMI) 335.30p -5.55%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 191.00p -4.45%Cairn Energy (CNE) 285.10p -3.78%BTG (BTG) 310.30p -2.64%Afren (AFR) 126.80p -2.39%Cape (CIU) 188.50p -2.38%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 92.90p -2.26%Perform Group (PER) 372.00p -2.11%NMC Health (NMC) 193.00p -2.03%BC