London afternoon: Weak retailers offset strong miners

Footsie is stuck in neutral, though the flat performance is largely down to strong demand for mining stocks. Gold miner Randgold Resrouces is the star performer in the mining sector after reporting a 55 increase in its attributable mineral resources and reserves for the year to December 2010. The company's shares have been under a bit of a cloud since December of last year when political unrest broke out in the Ivory Coast. However, hopes have risen recently that the situation in the African country may be close to resolving itself after forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara seized the major cocoa port of San Pedro last night. Ouattara was adjudged by United Nations observers to have won the presidential election in November but incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down, sparking armed conflicts between the rival factions.Tour operator TUI Travel is higher after saying underlying trading has been "satisfactory" during the last six months. Like Thomas Cook on Tuesday, it has not changed its estimate of the cost of trouble in North Africa. Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia are expected to have cost the company between £25m and £30m in the second quarter, as flagged last month.Oil services company Petrofac has won a contract worth more than $240m (£149m) with Shell to develop facilities in the Majnoon field, Southern Iraq.London Stock Exchange(LSE) moves ahead after saying it grew average daily value traded in UK equities by 2% over the past year and is finishing the period on a strong note.Food ingredients firm Tate & Lyle is higher after it said that operating performance in the year to end-March was in line with market expectations, save for the company receiving a late boost to co-product income from the rise in corn prices. The group has seen global volume growth in Speciality Food Ingredients across all the major product categories through the year. Cash and carry group Booker saw a healthy rise in sales in the year to 25 March, but predicted economic conditions would remain challenging in 2011. Total sales were up by 6.4%, with like-for-like sales up by 4.4%. Fresh fruit and vegetable sales did particularly well, climbing by 52%. Retailers are having a hard time today after dismal consumer confidence data. GfK NOP's monthly consumer confidence index remained at- 28 in March having edged up to that level in February from -29 the previous month.Dixons Retail is having another bad day, as are department store group Debenhams, floor coverings seller Carpetright, trendy clothes retailer SuperGroup, sportswear group Sports Direct and homewares seller Dunelm.Mothercare falls back after the babycare retailer saw margins squeezed in the quarter to 26 March after slashing prices to clear its autumn and winter stock amid a weak consumer environment. Total sales were up by 10.2% from the same period the previous year, with international operations leading the way. Sales in Britain were up by 4.7%, though they were down by 2.4% on a like-for-like basis, which excludes the wholesale business.Elsewhere in retail, fashion and home furnishings group Laura Ashley is down more than 12% after it said full year pre-tax profit more than doubled on improved demand from its stores and franchise business but warned that trading since February has deteriorated as UK consumer spending weakens. Contract caterer Compass's good start to the new financial year has continued through the six-month period, leaving it comfortable with forecasts for the full-year. In a statement ahead of interims on 18 May, the firm said constant currency revenue growth, including the impact of acquisitions, was about 9.5%, with organic growth at 5.5%. There's also been a "slight" increase in like for like revenue against the weaker comparatives of the first half of 2010. Margin has improved by about 20 basis points.Energy supplier Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is on track to report underlying profit before tax for the full year in line with the consensus of analysts' forecasts, which currently stands at £1,301m. The company, which is about to enter its close period on Friday prior to publication of full year results on 20 May, said it expects to deliver a full-year dividend increase of at least 2% more than Retail Price Index inflation, and of at least 74.5 pence per share.