London afternoon: US shadow increases London gloom

Expectations of a weak start on Wall Street, after poor US jobless data, sent London lower still over the lunch time session, with banks and miners continuing to feature prominently among the blue-chip fallers. Lloyds and Standard Chartered are the worst performing banking stocks as worries resurface about the prospect of sovereign debt defaults, while HSBC is also lower as concerns mount that there might be a power struggle at the top as the company looks to replace Trade Minister Stephen Green as chairman.Among miners Kazakhmys, Antofagasta and Anglo-American are the main casualties as metal prices pause for breath.Water supplier United Utilities says it is on track to deliver results in line with expectations, with the recent regulatory price review for the 2010 to 2015 period now water under the bridge. Elsewhere in the utilities sector Severn Trent has a fan in Evolution Securities, which thinks the stock looks cheap, particularly as the company "is likely to surprise on the upside when announcing dividend policy in November."The last major obstacle to the merger of British Airways and Iberia has been cleared after the Spanish airline backed BA's plan to tackle its huge pension deficit.All Bar One pubs owner Mitchells & Butlers appears to have enjoyed an Indian summer. In the nine weeks to 18 September the group saw like for like (LFL) sales improve by 3.6% on last year's levels. That was a sharp improvement on the 1.6% year on year advance in LFL sales seen in the first 42 weeks of the fiscal year, and took the LFL improvement over the 51 week period up to 2.0%; Numis Securities had predicted an improvement to 1.8%.Wind turbine gearbox designer Hansen Transmissions has teamed up with gearbox solutions expert Romax Technology to win business in China and South Korea. The pair will work for certain wind turbine makers in the area, providing design, development and supply of state-of-the-art gearboxes for multi megawatt (MW) turbines.Britain's biggest nightclub operator Luminar has eased investors' fears over the company's future with an announcement that trading in the half year to August 26 has been in line with expectations, if challenging.Shares in Churchill Mining roared ahead after the coal miner said a study at its East Kutai project in Indonesia 'confirms the technical and economic feasibility of the project and demonstrates that it is a world-class thermal coal deposit.' Nautical Petroleum, the oil explorer currently enjoying huge success in the North Sea, has sold a stake in its Mariner discovery to Statoil for £87.5m in cash. The Norwegian firm, which will also carry up to £3m of Nautical's cost through to final investment decision, expected within 1-2 years, will be the proud owner of an interest in Licence P355, Block 9/11a. Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates is widening its sphere of operation by a few miles with talks underway with Land Securities over the development of the 'Walkie-Talkie' tower in the City of London . If it goes ahead, the new building, in Fenchurch Street and a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies, will be 160m high with sloped sides. The shares fall back, however, as the company announced a heavily discounted share placing of around 109m shares at 128p each.Oil and gas-focused investor and adviser Parkmead Group has been transformed by the November 2009 purchase of energy sector consultancy Aupec.