London afternoon: Footsie ambles into positive territory

The blue-chip index moved into positive territory over the lunchtime trading session helped by expectations of a firm start on Wall Street.Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered, the only FTSE 100 company to deliver results today, defiantly said it will pay its executives bonuses after another record year in 2009, with income and profits slightly above market forecasts. "We pay for good performance and we do not reward failure," chairman John Peace said. Profit before tax rose 13% to $5.15bn and was up 18% on a constant currency basis. CEO Peter Sands added that 2010 has started well for both its retail and wholesale divisions.RSA Insurance is the weakest blue-chip after the company said yesterday that it expects to make around £30m in payouts as a result of the Chilean earthquake. Prudential, however, has pulled out of the tailspin it went into after it announced its plan at the beginning of the week to buy the Asian interests of cash strapped US insurer AIG. There's speculation that Prudential, which lost a fifth of its stock market value in the first two days of the week, could become a takeover target. British Airways loses altitude as traders bank profits following yesterday's strong advance, which was sparked by better than expected figures from German airline Deutsche Lufthansa. In the FTSE 250, ITV remains cautious despite returning to profit last year and keeping adjusted profit steady, as a marked bounce-back in advertising spend in early 2010 is flattered by weak comparatives. Pre-tax profit was £25m against a £2.7bn loss in 2008 on revenue down 7% to £1.87bn. Profit before tax and exceptionals dipped 4% to £108m. TV ad revenue dropped 9% to £1.29bn, but that was ahead of the total market which fell 11% and the first quarter of 2010 is estimated to be up 7%. Early forecasts for April indicate an increase of 15-20%, but the group warns of tougher comparatives later in the year.Rail and bus group Arriva saw profits fall by 19% in 2009 as it weathered the recession and dealt with the effects of a heavy increase in fuel costs. Profit before tax fell to £121.7m from £150m the year before on revenue that grew to £3,147.8m from £3,042.2m. Management said that it was disappointed in the revenue growth of its CrossCountry train operations. It needed around 10% passenger revenue growth to maintain the profitability of the UK Train division and only got 2.6%.India-focused miner Vedanta has published the final terms of the $805m convertible bond offering it announced on Tuesday. The bonds, due for redemption in 2017, will carry a coupon of 4%. The company intends to use the funds raised by the bond issue to refinance debt redemptions and for general working capital purposes.Support services company Carillion confidently expects to enhance earnings again in 2010 after beating market expectations in 2009 despite challenging market conditions. Lender International Personal Finance has taken a battering after its full year figures. The dividend was held but profits were boosted by £10m from a pricing policy that will reverse in the current year due to increased early settlement rebates on the introduction of the EU Consumer Credit Directive in 2010. Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said full year pre-tax losses widened but said the first two months of the year had started strongly and it was well positioned to increase profitability as markets recover.Frankie & Benny's eateries owner The Restaurant Group said like-for-like (LFL) sales returned to growth in the latter stages of 2009. 'The current year has started well - after nine weeks, revenues are 6% ahead of last year and like-for-like sales are up 1%,' said chief executive Andrew Page, in a statement accompanying 2009 results.Shares in Care UK surged after Bridgepoint Capital said it would buy the health and social care provider for £281m or 450p per share. Elsewhere in the healthcare sector Assura Group is off colour after it said it is selling its medical services assets to Virgin Group. The deal appears to put paid to hopes of a takeover for Assura; the group said in January that it had received preliminary bid approaches and these were still in progress at the time of its 10 February trading update.Belgravium, which supplies technology used in handheld and vehicle mounted computers, posted a slight rise in pre-tax profits in the year to December 31 despite lower revenues. Profit before tax increased to £405,000 from £398,000 the previous year on revenue that slipped to £8,286,000 from £8,330,000.