Down in London, page-6

Despite negative reactions to trading updates from BHP Billitonand CRH, Footsie has opened on the front foot.

Mining conglomerate BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) is the worst performing blue-chip, as it confirmed plans to spin-off into a separate company what it sees as the less sexy parts of the business: the aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel and silver assets.

Listing the assets as a separate company will generate cash for the company but BHP disappointed the market by saying that it will not use these funds to rebase the dividend; “rebase”, in this context, would mean upping the divi, rather than the more usual case where “rebase” is a euphemism for a dividend cut.
BHP’s shares are down 2.6%.

Building materials group CRH (LON:CRH) is another Footsie constituent on the slide, after its interims failed to excite. The shares shed 0.4% despite a 27% year-on-year gain in underlying earnings (EBITDA).
The earnings outlook statement was a master-class in diffidence. “Assuming normal weather patterns and no major market dislocations, and with the benefit of contributions from acquisitions and cost saving measures, we continue to expect second-half group EBITDA to be somewhat ahead of last year (H2 2013: €1.08 billion)."

FTSE 100 is up 30 at 6,771.

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