StockMarketWire.com - FTSE indices remained moderately lower to midday, following Europe's lead, with house builders replacing miners as key ballast. Also lower were retail, financial and pharmas, amongst other tapering sectors. Traders were digesting UK unemployment data out mid morning. To noon, FTSE 100 was down 46.17 points, or 0.73%, to 6296.11. FTSE 250 was off 61.41, or 0.36%, to 16,936.6. At 11.40am, gold and copper were at $1167/oz and $238/lb. Three-month industrial metals were mixed. Crude oil was down 0.7% or less. Less than 20 blue chips made headway. House builder Taylor Wimpey (TW.) faltered 2.67% to 187.95p on profit taking, with sector buddies Barratt Developments (BDEV), down 2.09% to 620.75p, and Persimmon (PSN), off 1.98% to 1929p, following. Several retailers eased with Burberry (BRBY) slipping 1.5% to 1408.5p, followed by Dixons Carphone (DC.). Investment specialists traced St James's Place (STJ), lower 1.6% to 847.25p, while insurers followed Prudential (PRU), off 1.59% to 1472.75p. Banks eased in the wake of Standard Chartered (STAN), which shed 1.49% to 727.8p. Several pharmas slipped south behind Astrazeneca (AZN), which eased 1.28% to 4085p. Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.), up 4.87% to 1345.5p, said AuA fell £0.5bn to £54.7bn in the three months to Sept. 30, despite record new business. Fresnillo (FRES), up 0.41% to 737p, has reported year-to-date silver output of 34.8 moz, up 6.6% on the year. Diageo (DGE), down 0.98% to 1825p, has agreed the sale of its major wine interests for $552m. BIGGER MOVERS Independent Oil & Gas (IOG), up 78.38% to 8.25p, has received notification from Darwin Capital that it has sold the Subscription Shares it held pursuant to the loan provided to IOG. Sula Iron & Gold (SULA), down 32% to 0.34p, has conditionally raised £0.5m gross via a placing of 166.67m shares at 0.3p each. Net proceeds would be used for an extended drilling programme on Sula's Ferensola Gold Project. A warrant would be granted for every two placing shares. Al Noor Hospitals (ANH) leaped 18.2% to 1175.5p on agreeing to merge with rival operator Mediclinic. The all-share deal creates a business that operates 73 hospitals where Mediclinic shareholders will own up to 93% of the business. ECONOMIC NEWS UK's unemployment rate has hit a seven-year low of 5.4% in the three months to end-August, versus 5.5% previously and expected. The number of people out of work fell by 79,000, taking the total of jobless individuals to 1.774m. However, the claimant count, which is the number of people claiming unemployment benefit, rose by 4600 in September to a total of 796,000. Meantime, China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.6% in September, on the year, down on August's 2.0% and below expectations for 1.8%. LONDON HIGHLIGHTS Tethys Petroleum (TPL), down 14.29% to 3.75p, has received a Notice of Events of Default from Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) relating to a $5m facility agreement. Tethys disagrees with Nostrum's stance that an event of default has occurred. It has issued a rebuttal and reserved its rights. Domino's Pizza (DOM) added 14.16% to 1016p after reporting a 20.7% year-on-year rise in UK sales to £200m for the 13 weeks to Sept. 27. Revenue via digital sales was 35% ahead and more than 75% of year-to-date delivered sales have been online. It sees FY results up on it views. Animalcare (ANCR) gained 7.73% to 237p on generating 181% more cash in the year to June 30 at £4.5m than it did a year ago. Investors liked an upbeat outlook statement. Galasys (GLS), up 7.02% to 30.5p, has won two new contracts in China worth about £505,000. N Brown (BWNG) gained 7.01% at 338.15p, despite reporting a drop in H1 profits as expected, with CEO Angela Spindler flagging a good start to H2 and assuring FY forecasts would be met. Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ), down 5.45% to 6.5p, said Q3 gold production was on track with 18,165 oz produced. Futura Medical (FUM) added 6.19% to 25.75p on licensing the manufacture and supply of erectile dysfunction treatment MED2002 to Quantum Pharma (QP.). Futura receives undisclosed royalties from the deal. Connect Group (CNCT), up 7.18% to 158.63p, said FY pretax profit fell 32.8% to £29.0m. Final dividend was 6.3p, up 5%, and took the FY dividend to 9.2p, up 4.5%. Other stocks in the news included Empresaria (EMR), DS Smith (SMDS), Marston's (MARS), Savannah Resources (SAV), Telford Homes (TEF), Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD), Verona Pharma (VRP), Outsourcery (OUT), Xchanging (XCH), Ferrum Crescent (FCR), Vertu Motors (VTU), Walker Greenbank (WGB), Telford Homes (TEF), Intertek (ITRK), Ultra Electronics (ULE), Ormonde Mining (ORM) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). - See more at: http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/5132607/FTSE-falls-as-house-builders-financials-falter.html#sthash.UxVXyuFz.dpuf

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