London open: Footsie slightly lower after updates' mixed reception

Shares have fallen back in early dealings following a mixed reception for company updates.Traders may also be looking ahead to today's announcement from the Bank of England on whether it will resume the quantitative easing (QE) programme.There have been calls for more QE from within the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, and yesterday the Institute of Directors (IoD) added its voice to demands for the Bank to increase fiscal stimulus. It called for a further £50bn expansion to QE, pointing to 'recent softening across a range of economic indicators'. There has been good news from one of the Footsie's stalwarts, however. Like for like sales growth at high street bellwether Marks & Spencer's UK stores were well ahead of market expectations in the third quarter. UK like for like (LFL) sales had been expected to be up year on year by anywhere between 1.3% and 4.6%; M&S delivered a 5.3% increase in the 13 weeks to 2 October.Among today's movers are Rank, higher after strong trading across its divisions helped thecasino and bingo hall operator to a 7% rise in like-for-like sales in the third quarter, leaving it confident for the full year despite challenging economic conditions.Latin America-focused precious metal miner Hochschild is shining after saying it has made a number of high-grade finds at its San Jose operation in southern Argentina which should "materially increase mine life".Car parts and bikes seller Halfords is lower after an update showed it is finding it an uphill struggle at the moment and slightly harder than analysts had imagined following recent warehouse disruption. Like for like sales fell 5.8% during the second quarter following a 4.5% drop at the retail business and 1.5% decline at Autocentres. Analysts were looking for 4-5%. Recruitment firm Michael Page raised profit by 37% during the third quarter and had its best month of 2010 in September as the temp business began to grow again, but the shares are lower.So are peer Hays'. The UK and Ireland are letting the side down at international recruitment firm, which otherwise saw strong growth in fees across all its geographic regions in the third quarter.Turning to larger companies, Indian miner Vedanta produced record amounts of zinc, lead and aluminium during the second quarter. In the three months to 30 September it grew refined zinc output by 25% to 176,000 tonnes to make it 341,000 tonnes for the half-year, an increase of almost 22%.British Gas owner Centrica is paying £5.7m in cash for a 15.96% stake in home energy management services firm AlertMe, and has also signed a commercial agreement, potentially worth over £20m , to deploy AlertMe products and services to its customers in the UK.FTSE 100 - RisersICAP (IAP) 454.90p +1.20%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 643.00p +0.78%International Power (IPR) 401.50p +0.55%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 131.90p +0.46%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,248.50p +0.39%United Utilities Group (UU.) 585.50p +0.34%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,142.50p +0.23%Schroders (SDR) 1,453.00p +0.21%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,007.00p +0.20%Kingfisher (KGF) 229.80p +0.17%FTSE 100 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,428.00p -3.71%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,279.00p -2.59%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 74.71p -2.20%Barclays (BARC) 301.75p -1.65%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 48.72p -1.56%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 385.10p -1.46%Xstrata (XTA) 1,268.00p -1.44%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,156.00p -1.37%Wolseley (WOS) 1,632.00p -1.27%Next (NXT) 2,237.00p -1.11%FTSE 250 - RisersImagination Technologies (IMG) 403.30p +3.62%ITV (ITV) 63.25p +2.76%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 371.80p +2.40%Bodycote (BOY) 280.40p +2.34%Computacenter (CCC) 335.00p +1.52%Rank Group (RNK) 123.20p +1.40%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 483.00p +1.36%Robert Wiseman (RWD) 318.60p +1.08%PZ Cussons (PZC) 380.10p +0.98%Mothercare (MTC) 511.50p +0.94%FTSE 250 - FallersPetropavlovsk (POG) 1,076.00p -5.36%Halfords Group (HFD) 425.00p -4.92%Michael Page International (MPI) 459.50p -3.95%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 170.40p -3.40%CSR (CSR) 334.50p -3.04%Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 78.55p -3.02%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 27.88p -2.82%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 96.65p -2.62%Hays (HAS) 114.80p -2.38%Persimmon (PSN) 384.90p -2.04%