UK Market News

LONDON (ShareCast) - London's top stocks are lower in early dealings Thursday following a weak finish in the US last night, with miners among the main fallers.

Lonmin (LSE: LMI.L - news) , Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) and Eurasian Natural Resources are all stuck in the red. Elsewhere in the sector, the Times (1832.HK - news) is reporting that Xstrata (LSE: XTA.L - news) has stepped up its campaign to merge with Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) last night, taking its £41bn merger proposal over the heads of Anglo's board to its shareholders.

BP has appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, currently chief executive officer of Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson (Stockholm: ERIC-B.ST - news) , to replace Peter Sutherland as chairman.

Full-year underlying profit plunged 78% at electrical retailer DSG International (LSE: DSGI.L - news) as the recession forces consumers to rethink spending. The Currys and PC World owner said it doesn't expect conditions to improve any time this year as it announced an underlying profit before tax of £50.5m for the 52 weeks ended 2 May, down from £225.6m a year ago.

Financial software firm Misys (LSE: MSY.L - news) has had a pretty decent year, boosting reported revenue by about 40% to £695m, adjusted profit from continuing operations by over 40% and like for like revenue by 3%.

Acquisitive legacy software specialist Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO.L - news) reported a 30.8% rise in full year pre-tax profits but warned that the impact of the recent Compuware (NASDAQ: CPWR - news) acquisition is expected to reduce the overall group margin.

Engineering (Milan: ENG.MI - news) and construction group Costain said trading has continued in line with expectations, helped by some large contracts with blue chip and public sector customers.

Engineering firm Keller said it has seen no significant change in its trading or outlook since its interim management statement five weeks ago and that expected results for the full year are still within the range of market expectations.

DS Smith saw profits slump in the year as the packaging firm said its results were "significantly affected" by an external environment that worsened as the year progressed.

Green energy support services firm Eaga (LSE: EAGA.L - news) expects full year results to be in line with forecasts and said its prospects for future growth and continued diversification remain encouraging.

Clinton Cards (LSE: CC.L - news) has bought 196 Birthdays stores, saving 1,450 jobs, a month after the greetings card firm put the business into administration.

Driver, which provides specialist commercial and dispute resolution services to the construction industry, said it expects first half pre-tax profits to remain broadly in line with last year's results after experiencing challenging trading.

Insurance broker THB saw profits fall, reflecting the continuing soft market and the impact of interest rate reductions on investment income.

Business supplies group office2office said its overall performance since 1 January 2009 is ahead of the comparable period in 2008 and in line with management expectations.

Aviation and distribution group John Menzies said it is continuing to benefit from cost-cutting actions and expects profits for the first half to be better than the previous year.

FTSE 100 - Risers TUI Travel (LSE: TT.L - news) (TT.) 236.25p +2.83% Legal & General Group (LGEN) 59.20p +2.16% BT Group (LSE: BT-A.L - news) (BT.A) 105.60p +2.13% Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) ) 36.23p +1.87% Standard Life (LSE: SL.L - news) (SL.) 182.00p +1.79% AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN.L - news) (AZN) 2,742.00p +1.56% Balfour Beatty (LSE: BBY.L - news) (BBY) 314.25p +1.13% Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW.L - news) (TLW) 919.00p +0.99% Inmarsat (LSE: ISAT.L - news) (ISAT) 534.50p +0.94% Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 603.50p +0.75%

FTSE 100 - Fallers Smiths Group (LSE: SMIN.L - news) (SMIN) 691.50p -1.91% Lonmin (LMI) 1,191.00p -1.89% BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) (BG.) 990.00p -1.30% Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 345.25p -1.29% WPP Group (WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) ) 409.75p -1.27% Antofagasta (ANTO) 588.00p -1.26% ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) (IAP) 429.75p -1.21% Carnival (CCL) 1,613.00p -1.16% Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 655.50p -1.06% Pearson (LSE: PSON.L - news) (PSON) 610.50p -1.05%