Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

The lunch-time session was a positive one for blue-chip equities despite Wall Street opening modestly lower, with banks and miners leading the advance.Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has usurped Bunzl as the best performer of the day. The part-nationalised lender, like its counterpart Lloyds Banking, is due to issue results towards the end of the week. RBS boss Stephen Hester has waived his £1.6m bonus this year and pressure is now on his Lloyds counterpart to make a similar gesture; both banks are expected to post losses, albeit smaller ones than the year before.Bunzl is still showing a healthy rise as the market was encouraged by a strong second half for the group that saw margins improve. Foreign exchange tailwinds enabled the outsourcing and distribution group to boost 2009 profits by 6% to £257.8m from £242.9m in 2008. In constant currency terms profits were down 5%, but that was better than expected.After being knocked back on Friday by the Fed's surprise decision to raise its discount lending rate to banks, mining stocks are clawing back the losses today, with Vedanta, ENRC and Kazakhmys leading the way.GlaxoSmithKline has been hit by a report from the US Senate which revived concerns about the safety of the company's diabetes drug, Avandia. The report claims that Glaxo knew of possible heart attack risks related to the medication years before the evidence became public.VT Group is higher on a report it has reportedly offered a bumper payout to its shareholders in an attempt to fight off rival Babcock International's takeover bid. Primark and British Sugar owner Associated British Foods expects its interim results to show a strong increase in revenue with growth achieved in all segments. Hammerson had a much better second half, although a profit for the last six months of the year failed to offset weakness in the first half, leaving the real estate giant nursing a big annual loss.Asia-focused oil and gas exploration and production company Salamander Energy has started drilling on the Bang Nouan-1 exploration well in the Savannakhet PSC. Ultra Electronics said its Communication & Integrated Systems business has been selected as the preferred bidder for the End Cryptographic Unit Replacement Programme (ECU RP).Sports Direct, the sportswear chain run by Mike Ashley, the billionaire owner of Newcastle United, is to buy two sizeable holdings in rivals Blacks Leisure and JD Sports from bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander to end a dispute over who owns the shares. It will also vote against Blacks Leisure's fund raising plans once it gets the shares.Craneware, the US healthcare software solutions provider, has sold a suite of its programs to North Shore-LIJ Health System, the largest integrated healthcare system in New York State.Miner Gemfields has a discovered a 6,225 carat rough emerald at its Kagem mine in Zambia. The emerald was recovered during normal mining operations on 5 February 2010. The emerald has been named "Insofu" or "elephant" in the local tongue. A diplomatic row is set to intensify in the coming weeks as British oil companies prepare to start drilling in the potentially lucrative waters surrounding the Falkland Islands. Desire Petroleum's Ocean Guardian rig is now about 60 miles north off the disputed islands that sit just 300 miles from Argentina. Pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond reported a 75% surge in half year pre-tax profit as it continued to benefit from higher gold prices and reduced bank lending. Eight months of bid talks at engineering group Hartest ended today as Delta Controls dropped its indicative offer. Delta said that its offer, worth about 68.3p at the outset, would be unlikely to get full board approval while stock market values had also fallen since it started discussions.Aim-listed property group London & Stamford said it has exchanged contracts with the NFU Mutual Insurance Society for the sale of No. 1 Whitehall Riverside, Leeds, for £51.3m. Shares in SkyWest took off after the Western Australian airline moved back into profit in the half year to 31 December, helped by a recovery in the mining sector.In contrast, share in engineering and environmental consultancy Waterman are submerged after the company warned trading conditions are expected to remain difficult during the next twelve months.Matrix European Real Estate Investment Trust (MEREIT) says €60m of cash will be released if negotiations for the potential sale of the IZD Tower are successful. The group said it is intended that at least €28.7m of the proceeds (as required by the LBG refinancing) will be utilised to de-gear the LBG portfolio.Shares in GoIndusty-DoveBid, a company that helps industrial firms to sell their assets, jumped after it said it traded profitably in the second half of 2009 after a tough first half. Contract manufacturer Stadium's results are likely to be ahead of market expectations, it said today. Strong trading in the final quarter of the year, and the momentum carried into the first quarter of 2010, will result in profit before taxation and exceptional costs exceeding market expectation by approximately 10 to 15%.