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London midday: Market follows Man higher

Thu, 04th Nov 2010 12:54

After a morning of holding its breath waiting for the Bank of England's pronouncement on quantitative easing, the admittedly small hopes that the Bank would follow the US central bank's lead and resume its asset buy-back programme were crushed by the announcement of maintenance of the status quo.Nevertheless, it was a good morning for London with miners doing particularly well on hopes that the Fed's stimulus measures will help sustain the global economic recovery. ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata move ahead.Mining giant BHP Billiton is the best performer in the sector, however, after yesterday evening's announcement that the Canadian government has blocked the Anglo-Australian firm's proposed $38.6bn takeover of fertiliser giant Potash. Despite BHP Billiton's strong showing, Man Group is the pick of the blue-chips after the hedge fund manager saw funds under management in the three months to September 30 rise to $40.5bn (£25.2bn) from $38.5bn 'due to strong investment performance and favourable FX movements.'In other sectors, Anglo-Dutch household goods giant Unilever is higher even though underlying sales growth eased off in the third quarter, despite a strong performance in emerging markets. Third quarter turnover at the Knorr soup and Dove soap group was up 13.2% at €11.55bn from €10.20bn a year earlier, ahead of some market forecasts of €11.35bn. Underlying price growth was negative at -1.2%, though this represented an improvement on previous quarters, and this trend is expected to continue for the remainder of 2010. For the first nine months of 2010 price growth was negative at -2.1%. Supermarket Morrisons is missing out on the fun after a rise in sales failed to impress. In a brief statement, the company said total sales excluding fuel were up by 2.8%, with like-for-like sales up by 1.3%. Rolls-Royce is also an exception after Aussie airline Qantas grounded its fleet of new Super Jumbo Airbuses after an engine exploded. Rolls made the engine in question.Insurer RSA Group maintained top line momentum in the third quarter despite challenging trading conditions. Net written premiums in the first nine months of 2010 totalled £5.53bn, up 10% from £5.03bn the year before. With exchange rate fluctuations stripped out the rise was 7%. Telecoms group Cable & Wireless Communications saw a dip in profits in the year to September 30 against what it described as a 'mixed economic backdrop' across the exotic regions it serves. Pre-tax profits fell to $204m from $223m even as revenues rose to $1.16m from $1.13m. The shares take a tumble on fears that the dividend may not be sustainable. Engineering firm Invensys said it was reassured by the government's commitment to invest in infrastructure such as the London Underground and the Crossrail project as it posted higher revenues, though profits were impacted by contract implementation costs. In the half year to September 30, pre-tax profits fell to £75m from £88m over the same period the previous year as revenues climbed to £1.16bn from £1.07bn. In the FTSE 250, oil and gas group Melrose Resources is strong after it announced its first production from gas fields off the Bulgarian coast. No-frills airline easyJet said it carried 4.6m passengers in October, up 8.6% from the same period last year. The October load factor increased to 88.2% from 86.8% in 2009, making 87.1% for the rolling 12 months. First quarter like-for-like sales at pub chain JD Wetherspoon increased 1.6% while total sales in the period rose 7.3%. International Hotel Group Millennium & Copthorne nearly doubled profits in the third quarter as it took advantage of improved economic conditions to lift room rates.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 281.50p +10.96%Unilever (ULVR) 1,918.00p +5.97%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,396.50p +5.11%British Airways (BAY) 287.30p +4.82%Xstrata (XTA) 1,338.00p +4.82%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,434.00p +4.75%Invensys (ISYS) 300.00p +4.57%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 928.50p +4.56%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,351.00p +4.49%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,381.00p +4.38%FTSE 100 - FallersRolls-Royce Group (RR.) 625.00p -4.51%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 282.70p -2.52%Experian (EXPN) 726.50p -1.82%Next (NXT) 2,143.00p -1.70%ARM Holdings (ARM) 339.60p -1.68%Serco Group (SRP) 551.50p -1.61%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 413.70p -1.38%Capita Group (CPI) 737.00p -1.01%Bunzl (BNZL) 736.50p -0.61%BAE Systems (BA.) 341.10p -0.58%
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28 Aug 2009 09:45

Midcap round-up: JKX Oil, Melrose, SVG Capital, ...

Oil explorer JKX Oil saw the lower oil prices crimp profits for the half-year but said its second half performance is expected to be in line with expectations. Pre-tax profit slumped to £44.6m from £83.5m before revenues fell to $78.5m versus $116.8m in the same period last year. Revenues were wei

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26 Aug 2009 16:27

London close: Footsie runs out of steam

Wall Street's inability to hold onto new home sale-inspired gains was the final nail in the coffin for London, bringing to an end a six-day winning streak. Much of the blame lay with the UK-listed miners who hogged the list of largest losers on weaker metal prices. Antofagasta was among the worst

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26 Aug 2009 14:32

London afternoon: RBS buoyed by pension moves

Equity prices are mixed with a lower bias. The Footsie continues to drift lower, weighed down by underperforming resource stocks. Pre-tax profits plunged at Tullow in the first half of the year as the firm felt the pinch of the slide in oil prices. The oil company posted a pre-tax profit of £34.

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26 Aug 2009 12:09

London midday: Resource stocks a drag

Given that resource stocks are in the dog-house the Footsie is doing well to be only moderately in the red on a day of mixed results for blue chips. Pre-tax profits plunged at Tullow in the first half of the year as the firm felt the pinch of the slide in oil prices. The oil company posted a pre-t

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26 Aug 2009 08:12

Melrose ups production guidance

Oil and gas firm Melrose Resources saw first half revenue and profit tumble as a result of lower oil prices and the planned cessation of production from its Galata field. Revenue in the six months to 30 June 2009 fell to $97.6m from $234m the year before. The company achieved an average price per

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11 Aug 2009 07:35

London pre-open: Small gains ahead

London's top stocks look set to open marginally higher with traders expecting Footsie to add 5 points in early trading. Clive Cowdery's insurance investment vehicle Resolution will be catapulted into the FTSE 100 index after life insurer Friends Provident accepted a new £1.86bn bid on Tuesday. Fr

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11 Aug 2009 07:23

Melrose cheers successful Kaliakra well

Melrose Resources said gas samples obtained from its Kaliakra No.2 well in Bulgaria confirmed that the reservoir has very good properties, with an average porosity in excess of 30% high gas productivity. Given the quality of the reservoir, it was not necessary to run flow tests in the well and it h

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15 Jul 2009 06:37

Wednesday tips round-up: Britvic, Mothercare, BG

The sun shines, ergo, the drinks companies do rather nicely. When the group in question, Britvic, owns the Robinson squash brand and Wimbledon turns out to be more entertaining than usual, you would expect it to release good news to the market. Britvic is likely to have a good time of it over the

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14 Jul 2009 12:59

Small caps round-up: NetDimensions, Ocean Power, Qonnectis...

Training software provider NetDimensions traded in lien with expectations in the first half of 2009. Cash balances at the end of June stood at $6.8m, up from $5.3m at the end of 2008. The company said its cash balance is equivalent to 16.5p in cash per share, a few pence above the current share pric

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8 Jul 2009 17:04

London close: Footsie dives as miners reverse course

The decline of the Footsie gathered pace in the final hour as miners, which had provided some measure of support for the blue-chip index for most of the day, turned lower. As global equity markets continue to retreat life assurance stocks were the main losers. Aviva, Legal & General and Prudential

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8 Jul 2009 15:36

London afternoon: Downward drift continues

The majority of blue-chip stocks remain lower on the day, though heavily weighted miners are limiting the extent of the fall on Footsie after positive broker comment this morning. Investec has upgraded Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, advising its clients to take advantage of recent share price weakne

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8 Jul 2009 12:02

London midday: Footsie still flat

On another directionless day with little in the way of company news to guide sentiment, Footsie sits just in the blue. Heavily weighted miners are limiting the extent of the fall on Footsie after positive broker comment this morning. Investec has upgraded Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, advising its c

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8 Jul 2009 09:00

London open: Down as banks await fate

Footsie has slipped in early dealings after a three-digit fall on Wall Street last night. Miners are going well despite the fall on Wall St overnight led by Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Antofagasta. Banks will be in focus later on when Chancellor Alistair Darling unveils the government's White Pape

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8 Jul 2009 07:19

Melrose on target at half-way point

Oil and gas firm Melrose Resources is proceeding as expected at its oil and gas fields in Egypt, although recent government elections have held things up in Bulgaria. Production averaged approximately 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) on a net entitlement basis versus current full ye

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19 May 2009 08:15

Melrose Resources ramping up production

Oil and gas firm Melrose Resources has raised its production forecast for 2009 by around 5%, reflecting continued strong performance of its Egyptian assets and the earlier than expected start of production at its South Zarqa and North East Abu Zahra projects. The net entitlement production forecast

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