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London mid-morning: BP firmer ahead of report
Wed, 08 Feb, 2012
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London mid-morning: BP firmer ahead of report
Wed, 8 Sep 2010, 09:53:00
Having seen its September winning streak end yesterday London is on the back foot again today, with a number of the Footsie's constituents going ex-dividend today not helping matters. Miners are out of favour. Now that the Labour party in Australia has been returned to power, albeit with the support of some independent MPs, concerns have resurfaced about the imposition of a supertax on miners. <b>BHP Billiton</b>, trading in ex-dividend form, is lower, as is <b>Rio Tinto</b>. Elsewhere in the sector <b>Vedanta, ENRC </b>and <b>Kazakhmys </b>are also in negative territory. In contrast there has been a rush to buy up property stocks such as <b>Hammerson </b>and <b>Land Securities </b>after BarCap began coverage of the sector with an "overweight" recommendation. A potential political row over the appointment of Bob Diamond as its new CEO is dogging <b>Barclays</b>, making it the biggest faller in a weak banking sector that also sees <b>Royal Bank of Scotland </b>featuring prominently among the Footsie's biggest losers. Bid speculation regarding engineering group <b>Invensys </b>has receded and with it the company's share price. <b>Vodafone</b> is selling its 3.2% stake in China Mobile for £4.3bn ($6.6bn) in cash as part of the mobile phone giant's strategy of exiting its smaller investments. It will return about 70% of the money to shareholders through share buybacks and use the rest to slim down its £33bn debt pile. UBS has issued a downbeat assessment of the European semiconductor market but it has made an exception of chip designer <b>ARM</b>, and raised its price target for the Cambridge firm from 305p to 370p. <b>BP </b>edges higher ahead of the release of its internal investigation into the causes of the tragic accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. <b>Dana Petroleum's</b> board has launched a fierce defence of its continued rejection of the 1,800p offer from Korean group KNOC, saying the group is worth at least 2,270p and could be worth 3,053p including all its potential assets. That valuation includes the UK assets of Suncor Petroleum, which Dana agreed to buy today for £240m having flagged the purchase last month. A 0.2% increase in <b>house prices</b> last month has hauled the cost of a home back close to levels seen at the end of 2009, according to the latest report. That's 4.6% higher than a year ago using a three-month average price, a little less than July's 4.9% and a continuation of the downward trend fro May's 6.9%. Reports from sector stalwarts were mixed. South east-based housebuilder <b>Berkeley</b> said demand in the Capital has held up over the past three months, though outside London business is tougher. "Demand for properties in the period from 1st May to 31st August 2010 has been resilient, particularly in London which has a shortage of supply and specific demand from international purchasers who are keen to invest in the Capital," Berkeley said. Housebuilder <b>Barratt</b> cut its losses sharply last year and made a net profit in the second half as the housing market rebounded, though reservations have turned down recently. Losses before tax and exceptional items were £33.0m (2009: £144.1m) with a profit before tax and exceptional items of £15.5m in the second half. The loss before tax for the year to June was £162.9m (2009: £678.9m). The stock turns lower, however, taking sector peers <b>Taylor Wimpey </b>and <b>Redrow </b>with it. Chocolate maker <b>Thorntons</b> served up a decline in full year profit and while it expects market conditions to remain rocky, it believes its more streamlined business puts it in a stronger position moving ahead. The group, which issued a profit warning earlier this year, said pre-tax profit fell by 2.4% to £6.1m in the year ended 26 June 2010. Revenues remained flat at £214.6m. Restaurant chain <b>Prezzo</b> traded strongly through the economic uncertainty of the first half of the year and has dusted off its growth plans. Revenue in the half-year to June rose 11% to £48.4m, up from £43.7m, with pre-tax profits climbing from £5.1m to £6m. <b>Alliance Pharma</b> is to more than double its interim dividend as it posted record results during the first half. For the six months to the end of June profit before tax and exceptional items surged to £7.7m.
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