FTSE slips slightly

Alliance & Leicester provided the London market with some much-needed cheer after shares in the banking group raced ahead today.

The top-flight stock rose by almost 6% after annual profits came in ahead of expectations and investors were offered a £300m (€448m) share buy-back.

The majority of banking stocks followed suit, but that was not enough to prevent the FTSE 100 Index slipping 16.8 points to 6395.5 at mid-morning.

It was the second weak session in a row for the Footsie after setting new six-year highs in recent days.

CMC Markets estimated that Anglo American accounted for almost three points of Footsie’s fall and pulled other miners lower following the release of its full-year earnings. The world’s third-biggest miner posted profits which were short of analyst predictions.

Anglo American fell 56p to 2546p while BHP Billiton was down 14.5p at 1074.5p.

Mobile phone group Vodafone added to pressure on the London market after shares fell 2p to 148.5p, a drop of more than 1%.

The bright spot from the market came from Alliance after it posted a 7% rise in annual profits to £585 million, around £5m (€7.45m) higher than market expectations. The stock lifted 63p to 1129p, while Northern Rock added 7p to 1221p and Halifax Bank of Scotland cheered 2p to 1162p – still off earlier gains as sentiment in the market weakened.

The other main corporate news involved George Wimpey after the housebuilder made encouraging comments about prospects in the UK and the United States, where tough trading conditions impacted on bottom-line profits for 2006 today.

The stock was ahead 4p at 580p, while blue-chip rival Persimmon rose 31p to 1397p as the sector also digested the possibility of another deal. The latest move involved Ben Bailey, which rose 57.5p to 695p after it emerged it was considering its strategic options.