PURI.L Share News (PURI)

A strong start on Wall Street is keeping London in the blue, just, with investors welcoming a bigger than expected jump in US consumer confidence.The leading index remains on course for a sixth consecutive day of gains after state-owned lender Royal Bank of Scotland said it will cut the level of benefits received by members of its generous final salary pension scheme. It's thought the move will save the bank £500m in addition to annual savings of £100m.Standard Chartered is lower though after the FT reported the sale of RBS' retail and commercial assets in China to StanChart has hit a snag. Defensives are better as risk appetite recedes. Vodafone Group, United Utilities Group and Shire are ahead.Miners remain weak though. Kazakhmys, Xstrata, Antofagasta, Eurasian Natural Resources, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Randgold Resources are the worst of the sector. Car insurer Admiral announced another record half year profit despite the poor economic conditions, prompting the firm to pay out record dividends and give its employees free shares worth £4.5m in total. But the shares fell following a good run over the past few months.Cairn Energy reported a loss after tax, but before a $55m exceptional item, of $20m for the six months to 30 June versus a $17m profit a year ago. Punch Taverns is picking itself up off the canvas and is confident of its longer term prospects, while its expectations for the full year remain unchanged. The near term outlook is harder to read, the company said, due to the lack of forward visibility on trading outlook. Housebuilder Persimmon reported a drop in first half profits, but says selling prices have stabilised in most parts of mainland UK. Instrumentation and controls company Spectris reported a 66% drop in first-half profits as challenging market conditions continued with weak demand across all major regions.James Fisher, the leading UK marine services, said strong organic growth overseas led by the Specialist Technical division more than offset the recessionary issues in the UK market.Aggreko, provider of mobile generators, reported a 56% increase in interim pre-tax profit, upped its dividend 15% and said its outlook for the full year remains unchanged. Outsourced workplaces provider Regus upped its interim dividend by 33.3% despite a drop in first half profits.Half-year losses grew at West End-focused office developer Derwent London as the value of its property portfolio tumbled by £259m.Building alarms company Visonic is the big noise among the FTSE TechMARK constituents after increasing pre-tax profits by a third. In contrast, life sciences firm PuriCore is encountering selling pressure after reporting an interim pre-tax loss of £5.35m, versus a loss of £6.82m a year earlier. Ukrainian wheat farmer Landkom is sharply higher after being featured on BBC's Newsnight programme on Monday evening.