London open: Poor start for Footsie

London's top stocks have turned down after the late gains yesterday with banks again under pressure on concerns over the plans of the new government to curb their activities.Reports that the EU is to push through controversial new hedge fund regulations next week have also cast a cloud over the financial sector while the Competition Commission will press ahead with the ban of the sale of payment protection insurance alongside credit cards and personal loans. Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are all lower. Building supplies group Wolseley is the best performer after it more than doubled trading profit during the third quarter and predicted full-year profit will beat forecasts of £374m. Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has appointed Kevin Beeston as non-executive chairman to succeed Norman Askew. Beeston, who recently left service company Serco after 25 years with the company and 8 years as its chairman, will take on the role with effect from 1 July.Intertek saw organic revenue for the first four months of the year increase by 3% at constant exchange rates, but warned that some of its markets remain challenging. Bad weather and customers winning more hit gaming group Ladbrokes in the four months to April. Group net revenue was down 6% over the period with betting shop net revenue down by 11%. Operating profit rose by 3%, nonetheless, though this excludes its high roller customers, where operating profits fell sharply from £25m to £8.9m. eGaming revenue fell 2%, though profits jumped 41%.Improving activity levels and order book at Renishaw has put the precision tool maker on course to top last year's annual revenue figure and for profits to be "significantly" higher than expectations. Chiefs said the positive trend in order intake reported at January's interim results continued during the third quarter, lifting the order book to £24.1m by the end of April from £9.7m at the start of the financial year.IT services provider Computacenter grew revenues by 8% in the first three months of the year and has seen similar growth rates during the second quarter, led by a strong rebound in the UK.