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London midday: Insurers and miners in driving seat
Thu, 09 Feb, 2012
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London midday: Insurers and miners in driving seat
Tue, 17 Aug 2010, 11:25:00
Mining stocks and insurers drove the market higher this morning, though prices came off the top just before midday. Acquisitive insurer
Resolution
posted a £203m first half profit after "additional financial discipline" squeezed £211m out of Friends Provident, snapped up last year for £1.9bn. Resolution lost £7m a year ago. The firm, which also bought AXA's UK life assurance business in June for £2.75bn, said UK IFRS operating profit jumped from £33m to £128m, helped by a £53m one-off gain. It's still on the lookout for more life company acquisitions and hopes to have added another business to its portfolio by the middle of next year. Rivals
Prudential
and
Old Mutual
, which recently published bumper results of their own, and
Aviva
, whose general insurance businesses in the UK, Ireland and Canada are being targeted by RSA, are both ahead. There are reports in this morning's FT that leading Aviva shareholders are to press the UK insurer to reconsider its dismissal of a £5bn ($7.8bn) offer from RSA. Miners
Eurasian Natural Resources, Antofagasta
and
Kazakhmys
are among the best performers on stronger metal prices.
BHP Billiton
, however, slips back after it unveiled an unwelcomed $38bn takeover bid for Canada's Potash Corporation, the world's largest producer of fertiliser. The sell off of assets at part-nationalised lender
Royal Bank of Scotland
continues, with the bank selling a €1.4bn portfolio of loans to a fund managed by
Intermediate Capital Group
, the FTSE 250 listed investment firm and fund manager. North Sea oil firm
EnQuest
is the best performing FTSE 250 stock after it reported a surge in half-year profit, increased its full year production guidance and said it looks forward to continuing growth. Water company
Pennon
is going well. It has traded as expected since the year end in March and users in the South West will be pleased to know the water supplier thinks a hose pipe ban is "highly unlikely" despite the dry summer. Its waste management business Viridor continues to perform well in weak UK economic conditions and remains confident of growing full year profit. Fund manager
Gartmore
declared itself satisfied with a 146% improvement in interim earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, though net sales were below expectations as the company counted the cost of the loss of one of its star fund managers. Assets under management at the end of June were down to £19.9bn from £22.2bn, but were up from £17.4bn a year earlier. The first half of 2010 saw venerable investment trust
Witan
achieve a negative net asset value (NAV) total return of -1.9%, though it outperformed its benchmark comparison. Eleven out of 13 of the company's manager mandates outperformed their respective benchmarks during the period. EDF Energy Networks has extended the support services contract of
Carillion
in a deal worth £40m a year to the construction services company. Oil and gas explorer
Melrose Resources
reported a 30% rise in half yearly pre-tax profit, helped by higher oil prices , and expects to reveal increased production from its Bulgarian gas fields. Maintenance and building services group
Rok
slashed its dividend after a sharp fall in profits in a year that was marred by economic weakness, bad weather and accounting failings in one of its businesses. Rok's sector peer, social housing group
Mears
, calmed some nerves about its prospects with an upbeat trading update. Adjusted interim profit before tax was £13.2m, up 42% on a year ago.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 967.00p +3.87% Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,217.00p +3.49% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,035.00p +3.19% Schroders (SDR) 1,412.00p +2.99% Schroders NV (SDRC) 1,140.00p +2.98% Old Mutual (OML) 125.00p +2.97% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,689.00p +2.93% Prudential (PRU) 571.00p +2.88% Aviva (AV.) 388.50p +2.80% Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 282.00p +2.77%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Cairn Energy (CNE) 487.80p -1.09% Diageo (DGE) 1,105.00p -0.45% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 571.00p -0.26% BP (BP.) 408.75p -0.24% Inmarsat (ISAT) 684.50p -0.22% International Power (IPR) 364.00p -0.19% BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,959.00p -0.18% GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,217.00p -0.08% United Utilities Group (UU.) 590.50p -0.00% Vodafone Group (VOD) 153.60p -0.00%
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