London open: Miners pull index lower

Blue chips have opened lower despite some trading updates today, with miners the main drag on sentiment.BHP Billiton's decision to end its battle to buy Canada's Potash Corp for around $40bn and sweeten shareholders with a $4.2bn share buyback instead has not helped its share price.Earlier this month, Canadian Minister of Industry Tony Clement said he wasn't satisfied the offer for the world's largest fertiliser maker was likely to be of net benefit to Canada and gave the company 30 days to prove otherwise. Today, BHP decided it couldn't satisfy the politicians and has withdrawn the offer, but not before racking up $350m worth of costs.Platinum miner Lonmin bounced back into profit and recommenced dividend payments as higher metals prices offset the ongoing technical problems at its main furnace. Profits in the year to September came in at $240m, compared to a loss of $272m last time. Revenues rose from $1.06bn to $1.59bn. A final dividend of 15c is proposed.The trimming of the BP empire continued Monday morning with the oil giant completing the sale of five southern African marketing businesses. The company has agreed to sell its fuels marketing businesses in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia to Swiss company Puma Energy, a subsidiary of Trafigura Beheer. Premier Oil is the stand-out in the oil sector after reports over the weekend that KNOC, the Korean company that recently snapped up Dana Petroleum, has its sights set on the company. Premier is said to be one of a number of North Sea-focused oil groups KNOC has spoken to informally.Autumn did not bring the usual increase in visitor numbers for Persimmon but the housebuilder said sales volumes have remained stable in the second half of the year. The company reiterated its previous guidance of an increase in full year sales revenues of around 10% more than last year, but said total borrowings at the end of the year are expected to be less than £80m, lower than previous guidance.Serco, the outsourcing company that recently got a telling off for asking suppliers to subsidise the group's contribution to the government's spending cuts, is on track to deliver on its financial guidance for 2010. At the half year Serco had an order book of £16.7bn, since when it has been awarded £2.3bn of contracts, bringing the total for the year to date to £4.5bn, comprising signed contracts valued at £3.7bn and preferred bidder appointments valued at £0.8bn.Online bookmaker Sportingbet has confirmed it is in bid talks, rumoured to be with Swedish rival Unibet in a deal that could be worth up to $600m. "The company confirms that it has had and will continue to have discussions with different parties in relation to a variety of potential opportunities," read a brief statement Monday. Pork specialist Cranswick served up a 12% increase in half year pre-tax profit, hiked its dividend and said it was confident for the second half. Pre-tax profit rose to £23.8m in the six months ended 30 September 2010 from £21.3m in 2009 following increased demand for its pork products. Turnover for the period rose 8% to £384.3m. Underwriter Beazley has again been rejected by rival Hardy despite upping its indicative takeover offer by 10% to 330p. Beazley said the board of Hardy would not recommend an offer of 330p per share and would not even be prepared to meet to discuss it. A previous offer of 300p per share got similar short-shrift.