Rentokil, the Royal rat catcher, has again resisted suggestions that it should sell off underperforming businesses to focus on core, profitable activities. The news comes after the company issued a further profit warning for City Link, its parcel delivery business. (more…)

The FTSE 100 ended the week below the psychological 5,500 level at 5,495.2, down 50.4 points on Friday, although this was above the early afternoon lows.

Falls in crude and gold prices meant that the oil and mining stocks lead the charge downwards. In the oil sector, Cairn Energy slipped 178p to 2,535p and BP was off 15.5p at 496p. As for the miners, share prices for all the big players fell. Anglo American was down 236p to 2,673p, Vedanta was down 108p to 1,902p, Rio Tinto was down 270p to 4,800p and BHP Billiton ended 80p lower at 1,361p. (more…)