Friday Lunchtime Market: Weaker FTSE waits on US economic data

Shares moved into the last half-session of the week in a subdued mood with FTSE 100 prices close their lows for the day ahead of news from across the Atlantic where a mass of US data is due for release.

Northern Rock continued to be in the news as the shares slipped another 10.6p to 182.9p, but Tate & Lyle was top of the loser board, down 158.5p to 399p, hit by the weak dollar and a cautious near-term outlook.

There was no direct encouragement from Wall Street where the Dow Jones industrial index is expected to go around 33 points lower in early trading to 13,880.

Buyers were active in the energy and mining sectors, but overall volume was only average with 993 million shares moving in 230,993 deals.

Lonmin was top of the leader board with a 112p rise to £35.10. Tullow Oil was another high spot, up 12p to 597p, after an upgrade to buy from Deutsche Bank.

The FTSE 100 spent the session between a high of 6,500.4 three minutes after the market opened and a low of 6,426.5 at 12:44pm. At 1:38pm it was 29.6 points down at 6,456.9.

Rio Tinto added 35p to £41.92 after shareholders overwhelmingly approved its bid for Alcan. The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Collins Stewart is a buyer of Carnival, down 2p to £23.52, as bookings have so far not been hit by economic weakness.

The broker is also a buyer of GlaxoSmithKline, down 22p to £12.90, more because of the group's pipeline of products rather than the lawsuits building over its Avandia diabetes treatment increasing the risk of heart disease.

Landsbanki is a buyer of support services group Harvey Nash, up 0.5p to 72p, after what it described as a 'strong' set of results. The broker was less bullish on JJB Sports, however, putting out a reduce recommendation. The shares added 7.25p to 152.75p.