Tuesday lunchtime business bulletin

Aug 26 2008 By Karen Dent

The FTSE 100 Index slid 2% today after a similar-sized sell off in New York cast a shadow over trading.

Miners and financials were among a wide range of stocks nursing falls in London, driving the blue-chip index down 110.8 points to 5394.8 by mid-morning.

It mirrored the fall for New York’s Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday as fears for the financial sector grew following the collapse of another regional bank.

In London, heavyweight miner Rio posted a 55% rise in half-year earnings but shares fell 3% or 178p to 5001p amid weakness in the mining sector. BHP Billiton was also down 4%, or 71p to 1627p, with Xstrata down 143p to 2958p.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey’s shares jumped today amid speculation the debt-laden firm has clinched a deal to shore up its finances.

The firm, which has net debts of £1.7bn, said in July it faced breaching "one or more" of its banking covenants if the housing market continued to weaken.

But shares jumped 14% after Building magazine said the housebuilder has agreed a relaxation of its lending covenants without the need to raise fresh cash.

Sources quoted by the magazine said the deal, to be announced with interim results tomorrow, would involve an "all-debt solution". The firm declined to comment.

The UK-based power provider Aggreko today hailed its own "flawless" performance at the Beijing Olympics.

Glasgow-based Aggreko said the operation to supply 140MW of power at 37 venues during the Games - one of the biggest power provision deals of its kind - was worth around US$40m (£21.7m) in revenues.

The Olympics contributed US$17.9m (£9.7m) to the company’s half-year results, which rose 43% to £67.9m today.

Revenues were 28% higher at £407.7m thanks to strong growth in emerging markets such as the Middle East and Latin America. Performance in Europe and the US was more subdued.

Around 150 of the firm’s staff have been in China for the Beijing Olympics, installing around 480 kilometres of cable. Their attention is now turning to the Paralympics in a few weeks time.

The pound at midday was US$1.8334 compared to US$1.8582 at the previous close, while the euro at midday was £0.7957 compared to £0.7964 at the previous close.