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London mid-morning: Footsie seeking direction

Date: Monday 26 Jul 2010

London mid-morning: Footsie seeking direction

Footsie is directionless this morning as company announcements send shares both ways.

Banks Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays are ahead after they sailed through the tests last week.

BP climbs after the oil giant confirmed it will t will hold a board meeting today to decide the fate of chief executive Tony Hayward, but said no final decision has been made.

Widespread reports over the weekend suggested Hayward is set to step down, but BP said its board will decide this evening on his future and also on the size of any provisions for the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Elsewhere in the oil sector, Tullow Oil is in demand after it said it has found a significant column of excellent quality light oil when drilling the Owo-1 exploration well in the Deepwater Tano licence offshore Ghana. Results of drilling, wireline logs and samples of reservoir fluids have established Owo as a major new oil field requiring further appraisal, it added.

Financial Times publisher Pearson in another riser after it reported a rise in first-half profits and upped its full-year outlook. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose to £203m in the six months period from £111m on sales of £2.34bn compared with £2.15bn previously. The board declared an interim dividend of 13p per share, a 7% increase on 2009.

But household products group Reckitt Benckiser is lower even after it saw net revenue rise by 10% to £2,061m in the second quarter of 2010. Net income improved 23% to £380m. Chief executive officer Bart Becht said the results were in line with the group’s full year targets. Guidance on full year performance has been left unchanged.

In the FTSE 250, shares in Connaught have collapsed. The bad news keeps piling up for the social housing group, which issued a profits warning last month, with the company admitting it is in dire need of cash. The company said its “urgent requirement for additional funds to meet the current and ongoing needs of the business” has been caused, in part, by additional pressure from suppliers and sub-contractors.

But results from Digital TV set-top box maker Pace have been given a good reception. It reported a 46% hike in half year pre-tax profit and announced the proposed acquisition of 2Wire for an expected $55m to beef up its US customer base. "Given the group's first half performance and good visibility for the second half, the board is in the process of revising its expectations for the 2010 financial year," it said in a company statement.

Betting firm William Hill is to close down its UK telephone betting operations and switch them to Gibraltar.

Wind turbine gearbox maker Hansen Transmissions is seeing tentative signs of a recovery in a tough market. Revenue in the second quarter of 2010 fell 21% to €107.0m from €136.3m the year before, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) dipped 6.4% to €6.68m from €7.14m.

Aberdeen Asset Management saw a net inflow of funds in the April to June quarter, with demand for its pooled fund products especially robust. The fund manager saw assets under management during its third quarter slide, however, to £164.7bn from £170.9bn at the end of Match, as equity markets declined and exchange rate movements proved unhelpful.

Insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has acquired a stake in Austrian peer GrECo and entered into a trading agreement with the broker and two others. The company is paying €17.6m and transferring over its Polish operations, valued at €0.65m, to the Austrian firm in return for a 20% stake in GrECo.

Business process outsourcing specialist Xchanging and its business partner Allianz Global Investors are to take over administration of savings plan accounts for OnVista Bank.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,215.00p +3.05%
Pearson (PSON) 999.00p +2.67%
Barclays (BARC) 309.80p +2.58%
BP (BP.) 407.00p +2.11%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 360.50p +2.04%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 64.81p +2.03%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 46.20p +1.92%
Old Mutual (OML) 120.70p +1.34%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 91.70p +1.27%
Sage Group (SGE) 249.80p +1.05%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,164.00p -1.94%
BG Group (BG.) 1,066.50p -1.39%
Experian Group (EXPN) 644.50p -1.30%
Rexam (REX) 342.30p -1.27%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,109.00p -1.19%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,079.00p -1.10%
Centrica (CNA) 311.10p -1.08%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,135.00p -1.05%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,024.00p -0.97%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,303.50p -0.96%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Pace (PIC) 201.00p +7.20%
Telecity Group (TCY) 454.90p +4.26%
Afren (AFR) 91.10p +4.11%
Game Group (GMG) 73.90p +3.43%
Fenner (FENR) 233.80p +3.09%
Bodycote (BOY) 246.00p +2.67%
BTG (BGC) 209.20p +2.65%
Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 416.00p +2.44%
Imagination Technologies (IMG) 340.90p +2.40%
Grainger (GRI) 114.00p +2.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Connaught (CNT) 20.00p -80.41%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 587.00p -3.45%
Resolution (RSL) 227.50p -2.86%
Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 63.75p -1.92%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 360.00p -1.91%
Hays (HAS) 93.70p -1.88%
Inchcape (INCH) 313.80p -1.88%
GKN (GKN) 142.40p -1.86%
Michael Page International (MPI) 399.90p -1.58%
Supergroup (SGP) 975.00p -1.52%

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