London open: Miners drag down Footsie

With the US closed yesterday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, London has no lead to follow in terms of market direction so it has resorted to its default setting of 'reverse'.Mining stocks are taking the low road as metal prices soften, and are taking the blue-chip index with them.The biggest blue-chip faller in the early going, however, is Severn Trent, best known as a water utility but it is also a supplier of water and waste water treatment solutions, and it is this part of the business which seems to be causing it the most concern at present. "In Severn Trent Services, market environments remain challenging, and we do not currently expect to see any upturn in these markets before the start of the next financial year. We expect full year performance to be second half weighted," the company said.The group's legion on income-hungry shareholders were kept happy by an interim dividend of 28.04p, up 7.7% on last year in line with Severn Trent's policy of increasing payments by three percentage points above retail price inflation. Interim profit before tax tumbled 35.4% to £65.3m from £101.1m the year before, but with exceptional items and losses on financial instruments stripped out, profits were more or less flat, at £155.0m, versus £168.0m last year. NOT LIVING BY BREAD ALONEContract caterer Compass is looking to clean up in South Africa, after acquiring Supercare Services Group for an undisclosed sum. Supercare is one of South Africa's leading cleaning companies. In the year to 28 February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of around £63.6m and had gross assets of about £12m. Cash-strapped food manufacturer Premier Foods is to get a new chief financial officer. Mark Moran, previously finance director at Durex condoms maker SSL International, will replace Jim Smart early next month, though Smart will hang around for a month to enable a smooth hand-over. The shares have reacted favourably to the appointment. Moran will oversee negotiations with the firm's bankers over refinancing of the group's huge debt mountain. Premier was given some breathing space by its bankers earlier this month when they agreed to defer end of year loan covenant tests by three months.OVER AN OIL BARRELThe haggling over price between oilfield safety equipment provider Cosalt and its chairman, David Ross, is over, and judging by the share price reaction, the directors of the crisis-torn firm spent most of the negotiations bent over an oil barrel.Cosalt shareholders will be entitled to receive 0.1p in cash per Cosalt share in cash under the terms of the agreed offer, which represents a discount of around 87.18% to the closing price of 0.78p on 16 November, the last dealing day before Ross made his low-ball offer.The rally by cash-strapped package tour operator Thomas Cook continues, with the shares up by one-tenth in early trading; it will only take another eight days or so of 10% gains before the shares are back roughly to where they were before the company announced it was running short of cash.FTSE 100 - RisersCompass Group (CPG) 549.00p +0.64%ICAP (IAP) 324.50p +0.56%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 18.05p +0.45%Inmarsat (ISAT) 390.60p +0.33%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,240.00p +0.32%Tesco (TSCO) 383.55p +0.29%Reed Elsevier (REL) 497.90p +0.26%National Grid (NG.) 621.50p +0.24%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 308.70p +0.23%International Power (IPR) 316.00p +0.22%FTSE 100 - FallersSevern Trent (SVT) 1,477.00p -3.02%Vedanta Resources (VED) 928.00p -2.83%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,007.00p -2.61%ARM Holdings (ARM) 550.00p -1.79%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 793.50p -1.73%Lonmin (LMI) 952.00p -1.60%Glencore International (GLEN) 376.30p -1.53%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,730.00p -1.51%Next (NXT) 2,559.00p -1.50%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,751.00p -1.46%FTSE 250 - RisersThomas Cook Group (TCG) 18.10p +10.70%Premier Foods (PFD) 4.75p +4.74%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 10.40p +3.79%FTSE 250 - FallersInternational Personal Finance (IPF) 169.40p -4.83%Cape (CIU) 285.40p -3.25%Supergroup (SGP) 459.90p -3.18%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 146.90p -3.04%--jh