London mid-morning: Footsie at 21-month high

Date: Tuesday 23 Mar 2010

Footsie has hit a 21-month high and is approaching 5,700 points as company updates win over investors.

Cairn Energy is the star performer so far. The oil group raised its forecast for peak production from its Indian assets by over a third to 240,000 barrels per day. The group posted net losses for 2009 of $60.7m against a profit of $440.0m on revenues of $170m, down from $299m. Profit after tax and before exceptional items was $52.7m (2008: $10.9m).

Legal & General is not far behind after it raised its final dividend by 33% and gave heavy hints more increases could be on the way. It comes after big cuts in the last two payouts. The company’s operating profit on an international financial reporting standards basis in 2009 jumped to £1,109m from a restated £592m in 2008.

Tobacco group Imperial Tobacco said trading for the financial year to 30 September 2010 has so far been in line with management’s expectations. Its global strategic cigarette brands have performed strongly, the company said, with both Davidoff and West growing volumes.

The UK government has handed a £4bn armoured vehicle contract to US defence giant General Dynamics (GD), putting hundreds of jobs at BAE Systems in jeopardy.BAE warned last week that its tank factory in Newcastle may have to close if the British army decided not to hand it the deal to build new light tanks.

BAE came under further bombardment today when Bernstein Research cuts its stance on the shares to "market perform" from "outperform" on valuation grounds.

BT will have to share its telegraph poles and underground cable ducts with its rivals under new proposals put forward by regulator Ofcom to boost the introduction of a super-fast broadband network. The regulator also wants BT to open its fibre lines so rivals firms can provide their own services to consumers. BT would be able to make a fair rate of return, the proposal said.

Support services group Babcock is to take over rival VT Group after the two companies reached agreement on a tie-up after weeks of wrangling. The transaction will be worth about 735p for every VT share based on Babcock’s latest closing price, comprising 361.6p in cash and 0.701 new Babcock shares, and values VT at about £1.33bn. Shares in both stocks are higher.

Since the end of its financial year at the end of September Aberdeen Asset Management has seen assets under management increase by a shade over one-tenth. Assets under management (AUM) at the end of February totalled £161.4bn, versus £146.2bn at the end of September 2009.

Carpet and floor coverings retailer Carpetright said the rate of recovery seen towards the end of 2009 has not been sustained and group profits for the year to 1 May 2010 are likely to fall below current market expectations.

Car parts and bike retailer Halfords said it expects earnings for the year to be ahead of expectations after seeing a rise in sales in the 11 weeks to 19 March. Sales increased by 1.3% compared with the same period the previous year and rose by 0.8% on a like-for-like basis, stripping out the impact of new stores.

Profits held up well at Severfield-Rowen in the year to December 31 despite a sharp fall in revenues, but the structural steel supplier said the strong margin performance would not be sustainable in 2010.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Cairn Energy (CNE) 422.50p +11.54%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 84.95p +4.49%
Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 1,227.00p +3.46%
British Airways (BAY) 248.00p +2.90%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,172.50p +2.76%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,830.50p +2.69%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,319.00p +2.65%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,178.00p +2.43%
Lonmin (LMI) 2,029.00p +2.37%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,694.00p +2.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BAE Systems (BA.) 382.30p -1.67%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 277.40p -1.60%
Kingfisher (KGF) 230.00p -1.29%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,184.00p -1.17%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,926.00p -0.72%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 550.00p -0.54%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,287.00p -0.54%
ICAP (IAP) 380.20p -0.31%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 147.70p -0.14%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,479.00p -0.14%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Regus (RGU) 109.70p +9.15%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 565.00p +6.10%
VT Group (VTG) 729.00p +5.65%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 325.30p +4.80%
GKN (GKN) 137.10p +4.66%
Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 421.90p +3.28%
Yell Group (YELL) 38.90p +3.16%
Imagination Technologies (IMG) 221.60p +3.02%
HMV Group (HMV) 80.10p +2.69%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 187.00p +2.52%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Carpetright (CPR) 798.50p -13.77%
Galiform (GFRM) 82.00p -2.44%
Mothercare (MTC) 608.00p -2.41%
888 Holdings (888) 109.30p -2.41%
Ecofin Water & Power Opportunities (ECWO) 143.00p -2.32%
Savills (SVS) 347.40p -2.14%
Hansen Transmissions International (HSN) 93.00p -2.11%
Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 80.50p -1.83%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 65.50p -1.80%
Cranswick (CWK) 791.50p -1.49%

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