Diageo, the world's biggest drinks group, came under pressure after lacklustre results from the number two drinks giant Pernod Ricard of France.

Pernod gave warning that its profits would grow only if there was not a "severe deterioration in the global business environment”. Since the general expectation is that there will be such a deterioration, Pernod shares dived 6 per cent and Diageo lost 3 per cent to 976.5p.

Pernod also cautioned that the Olympic Games in China failed to bolster sales as expected, and even had a negative impact as people stayed at home to watch the contestants.

Vodafone was down 0.05p at 123.05p after analysts at Bernstein warned of management turmoil at the telecoms group, which was coming at a time of global economic gloom.

But the FTSE 100 was up 71.7 at 5984.1 as the rescue of HBOS, up 44 per cent, by Lloyds TSB, and central bank cash injections into money markets helped to restore confidence in the banking sector. Even Bradford & Bingley managed a 6 per cent rise to 30.75p.

Kingfisher gained 8.7 per cent as the B&Q owner beat first-half profit forecasts and said cost cuts would help it cope with tough trading conditions.

Enterprise Inns was up 12 per cent at 228p after Goldman Sachs removed the company from its pan-European "sell" list. It said: "Following recent share price weakness we no longer see the risk-reward profile of Enterprise as materially skewed to the downside. We therefore upgrade our rating from "sell" to "neutral" with an unchanged six-month price target of 230p."

It has a trading statement due next week on September 26 on and Goldman said that, based on Punch's recent trading statement, the profit decline may have improved in the past couple of weeks. But it said that "we continue to believe that Enterprise’s current financing structure is unsustainable, given the freehold value falls that we expect over the medium term."

There are rumours that US cruise ship operator NCL has cancelled its $1billion order for the first of a new 4,200-berth F3 ship orders with Aker Yards. Analysts at UBS say this would be good news for rival operators such as Carnival, up 3 per cent at £20.31, since it would lower capacity and reduce competition.

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