Footsie started the day hesitantly but gloomy data from the US ensured the leading share index closed sharply lower.

Initial jobless claims in the world's largest economy rose by 12,000 to 500,000 in the week to August 14.

This was followed by the Philadelphia Fed's general economic index slumping to its lowest level since July 2009. It fell from minus 5.1 in August to minus 7.7 this month.

Retail sales rose by 1.1% in July, well ahead of expectations. The rise in sales was led by purchases in non-food based shops, which were up by 1.8%. Sales at predominately food stores, which tend to do well even during difficult economic times, fell by 1%.

Credit Suisse thinks the time is right to buy into Wm. Morrison before the food retailer's new boss, Dalton Philips, makes his debut results announcement on 9 September. The cheery comment sent the shares higher.

Broker comment has the opposite effect on some other big guns of the Footsie, however. Inmarsat fell after UBS downgraded the satellite firm to "neutral" from "buy".

JPMorgan, meanwhile, has stuck the boot into United Utilities (UU), downgrading the stock and raising concerns about its ability to hit earnings targets because of issues such as higher property rates. Other utility companies, most notably Severn Trent, Northumbrian Water and Pennon Group are dragged down with UU.

Essar Energy, the Indian energy company that floated in May, ramped up revenue by 66% in the half year to June 30, though profits fell due to higher crude costs and lower retail margins. The FTSE 100 firm said a 20% hike in refinery sales volumes and 51% increase in average refinery sales prices pushed revenue up to $4.76bn from $2.87bn a year ago. Oil and gas revenues leapt 68% to $4.59bn.

The shares trade marginally lower after the results, though that's not a bad performance in a generally weak oil sector where the likes of Cairn Energy and Royal Dutch Shell are friendless as the price of Brent crude slides. BG Group defies the trend, however.

Aviation and newspaper distribution group John Menzies expects full year results to be slightly ahead of current market expectations after a good first half performance at both its divisions. For the six months ended 30 June 2010 pre-tax profit increased to £20.6m from £7.4m the same time a year earlier. Revenue for the period rose to £924.0m from £821.3m.

Profit plunged by 59% at oil services firm Wellstream during the first six months of 2010, as expected, but the order backlog is rising and the second half results should better. The UK mid-cap reported profits of £10.6m compared with £25.7m a year ago, hit by the lower level of market activity outside of Brazil. Revenue was down 34% to £128.6m. But acting CEO Alasdair MacDonald said new contract wins had boosted the order backlog to £246m by 30 June. It now stands at over £280m, driven by awards in Brazil and winning smaller projects elsewhere.

IT firm Dimension Data, which recently agreed to a takeover by Japan's NTT, said quarterly trading remained strong and is confident of reaching single digit constant currency revenue growth for the full year. For the three month period to 30 June 2010 turnover in constant currency increased year on year by 22% compared to in the same quarter in 2009.

A strong blockbuster and 3D film line-up, following a solid first half performance, underpins Cineworld's confidence in delivering full year results in line with market expectations. For the 26 weeks ended 1 July, the cinema chain said EBITDA edged up to £24.4m from £23.2m the year before. Pre-tax profit rose to £11.8m from £11.6m, while group revenue stood at £162m, up 3.8% against 2009. Blockbuster Toy Story 3 raked in an impressive £21m in its opening weekend last month.

AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, has won a contract to extend a gas facility in Cheshire. The contract, worth more than £60m, has been awarded by EDF Energy and requires AMEC to design, install and commission the filtration and compression facilities, after-cooling, de-hydration, metering and utility equipment at the Hill Top Farm facility at Warmngham.

Infrastructure specialist Balfour Beatty said its Gammon Construction joint venture has been awarded a rail infrastructure contract in Hong Kong. The contract, worth HK$2.88bn (£238m), is for work on the West Kowloon part of the Guangzhon-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express rail link.

Scottish drugs firm ProStrakan has delivered half-year sales growth in line with forecasts, slashed pre-tax losses and made the first EBITDA profit in its history. The pre-tax deficit narrowed to £2.7m in the six months ended 30 June from £9.4m in 2009, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £1.2m compared with a £4.3m loss a year ago. That was better than the £1m predicted by KBC Peel Hunt, but the broker noted it was not all good news for ProStrakan.

"Sancuso faces further problems now that manufacturing will be halted for two to three months after an FDA [Food and Drug Administration] inspection. It is uncertain whether this will constrain second half performance. Bayer has also handed back RoW [rest of world] rights to Tostran," the broker observed.

Oil and gas exploration and production company SOCO International has started drilling the first well in its Te Giac Trang (TGT) appraisal programme offshore Vietnam.

Shares in internet payment services group DataCash soared after it was snapped up by the US credit card giant MasterCard for £333m. MasterCard, which is looking to expand its internet-based activities, will pay 360p a share for DataCash. Shares in DataCash rose by more than 50%.

Electricity generating glass maker Romag saw its share price shattered after it issued a profit warning.

Australian power generation developer Ceramic Fuel Cells has taken advantage of recent share price strength to raise £10m through a placing of shares at 10.5p each.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Serco Group (SRP) 563.00p +2.74%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 287.00p +1.92%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 320.20p +1.91%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,820.00p +0.87%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 358.00p +0.79%
Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 571.00p +0.62%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,545.00p +0.59%
Capita Group (CPI) 711.00p +0.35%
Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,615.00p +0.25%
British Airways (BAY) 225.90p +0.18%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Inmarsat (ISAT) 688.50p -5.03%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,073.00p -4.78%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 459.30p -4.25%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 888.50p -4.10%
Prudential (PRU) 570.00p -2.98%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 572.00p -2.97%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,740.00p -2.74%
BP (BP.) 386.70p -2.74%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,679.00p -2.69%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 635.50p -2.65%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 545.00p +7.50%
ITV (ITV) 56.30p +7.44%
Michael Page International (MPI) 403.00p +5.83%
Melrose (MRO) 228.90p +3.20%
SDL International (SDL) 536.00p +3.08%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 197.90p +2.86%
Savills (SVS) 328.80p +2.85%
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 272.10p +2.83%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 312.00p +2.63%
Lamprell (LAM) 274.00p +2.35%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hansen Transmissions International (HSN) 58.20p -10.46%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,008.00p -5.26%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 750.00p -4.88%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 1,030.00p -4.72%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 161.70p -3.81%
Pennon Group (PNN) 565.50p -3.58%
Croda International (CRDA) 1,301.00p -3.56%
Xchanging (XCH) 124.60p -3.49%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 71.45p -3.45%
Grainger (GRI) 103.80p -3.35%

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BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
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Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) share price
Menzies(John) (MNZS) share price
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) share price
Soco International (SIA) share price
Dimension Data Holdings (DDT) share price
DataCash Group (DATA) share price
ProStrakan Group (PSK) share price
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Essar Energy (ESSR) share price