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London midday: Rally underway
Tue, 07 Feb, 2012
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London midday: Rally underway
Tue, 24 Aug 2010, 11:45:00
Having hit its low point for the day shortly after 9:00am the Footsie has been steadily wending its way back to its overnight level, but it has a way to go, with around five out of six of the benchmark index's constituents still in the red. Mining stocks are out of favour, especially <b>Vedanta</b>, which has seen its proposal to mine bauxite in India rejected by the government on environmental grounds, Kazakh operators <b>Kazakhmys</b> and <b>ENRC </b>are also suffering, while <b>Antofagasta </b>is down after it trimmed its full year copper production target from 543,000 tonnes to 530,000 tonnes as a result of delays in adding new capacity to its Los Pelambres mine. The company said increased production volumes and higher prices contributed to a sharp increase in underlying net earnings in the first half of 2010. Net earnings rose 91.4% to $451.2m from $235.7m the year before, giving earnings per share of 45.8 cents versus 23.9 cents at the interim stage last year. Fellow miner <b>Xstrata </b>is also in the doldrums after it announced a recommended cash bid worth A$428m ($383m) for Africa-focused, Australian-listed Sphere Minerals to beef up its iron ore portfolio. A much faster than expected turnaround in the US helped advertising giant <b>WPP</b> lift first half profits by more than a third, with shareholders getting a 15% dividend hike, but the market is underwhelmed and the shares fall back. <b>Cairn Energy</b>'s revenue before exceptional items increased by 311% from $81m to $333m at the half year stage. In an update on its Greenland drilling programme the company said the first hydrocarbons have been discovered in the Baffin Bay basin by T8-1 well which has encountered gas, in thin sands. Plumbing supplies group <b>Wolseley </b>continues its divestment programme aimed at cutting debt, but the market seems to have misgivings about the £43m price achieved for its UK tool and equipment hire business, Brandon Hire. Shares in Irish building materials supplier <b>CRH</b> also dived as it posted a 77% decline in half year profit and warned full year EBITDA will show a decline of around 10% this year as weakness continues in the US. Profit before tax slumped to €25m in the six months ended 30th June 2010 compared to €108m a year earlier. Revenue fell 8% to €7.6bn. In the FTSE 250, interactive learning technology specialist <b>Promethean World</b> has fallen sharply even after it revealed a surge in half year profit and is to pay a maiden dividend after solid growth across its key markets. The UK and Ireland markets are approaching saturation point, however, and combined sales in these areas fell 12% year-on-year, and now account for just 9% of the group's total sales. <b>Persimmon</b> has restarted dividend payments as first half profits and sales rose simmonsharply, though it says the housing market has slowed in recent weeks. Shareholders will get 3p per share after interim profits jumped to £101.4m from £9.8m. Underlying profits, before one-offs and landbank provisions, came in at £39.4m against a loss of £16.7m. Pubs group <b>Punch Taverns</b> expects full year earnings to be marginally ahead of its previous expectations, as pub refurbishments and favourable summer weather brought in more customers. The group, which has more than 7,100 pubs in total, said like for like sales for the last 12 weeks were up 2.6% after improved trading particularly in the final quarter. Steam trap and pump maker <b>Spirax Sarco</b> pulled out all the stops in the first half of 2010, achieving record results. Revenue rose 10%, or 8% on a constant currency basis, in the first half of 2010 to £277m from £251.6m the year before. <b>Wood Group</b>, which provides support services to the oil and gas industry, posted a decline in half yearly profit but said it looks to the second half and 2011 with increasing confidence. <b>Spectris</b> expects full-year results will meet forecasts after the instrumentation and controls company told investors the gradual recovery witnessed at the end of 2009 strengthened during the first half of this year. Adverse currency movements hit <b>Gem Diamonds</b>' first half despite a recovery in sale prices over the period. Profits to June fell to $7.8m from $18.1m as revenues fell to $104m from $117m, though stripping out a one-off gain last year Gem says underlying turnover rose by 20% to $87m. South Korea's state-run oil company <b>KNOC</b> confirmed press reports that it doesn't intend to increase its £18 a share cash bid for Dana Petroleum. Services, maintenance and building firm <b>Interserve</b> is one of six companies chosen as principal supply chain partners in the new NHS framework agreement worth up to £4.5bn over six years. <b>FTSE 100 - Risers</b> Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,051.00p +3.44% Compass Group (CPG) 512.50p +1.59% Burberry Group (BRBY) 849.50p +1.43% British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,196.00p +0.85% ICAP (IAP) 404.30p +0.82% African Barrick Gold (ABG) 567.00p +0.62% Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,843.00p +0.49% Old Mutual (OML) 125.40p +0.40% Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 288.20p +0.35% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 337.50p +0.27% <b>FTSE 100 - Fallers</b> Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,918.00p -5.84% Wolseley (WOS) 1,235.00p -5.44% Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,104.00p -3.83% Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 818.00p -3.65% WPP Group (WPP) 649.00p -3.28% British Airways (BAY) 216.20p -3.05% Invensys (ISYS) 242.20p -3.00% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 67.63p -2.89% BP (BP.) 379.60p -2.82% Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,217.50p -2.59%
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