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London open: Stocks retreat after rally

Date: Monday 25 Jul 2011

London open: Stocks retreat after rally

Stocks have given back some of the gains posted ahead of the weekend, with company updates failing to impress investors.

Domino’s Pizza has gone cold. The pizza-deliverer posted a sharp rise in first-half profits in the first half of the year despite the tough economic climate, but the pizza delivery group could see margins squeezed in the second half as it triples advertising spending.

Pre-tax profits in the 26 weeks to 26 June rose to £20.1m from £17.5m over the same period the previous year, on sales that rose to £258.4m from £237.1m. But on a like-for-like basis, stripping out the impact of new stores, sales growth was 2.4%, a sharp deceleration from the 13.7% growth seen the previous year.

Dixons Retail’s announcement that the Currys and PC World owner is to operate the consumer electronics section of the luxury London department store Harrods, has also been given a frosty reception.

Power and gas grid operator National Grid leads the risers in the FTSE 100. Its operational and financial performance since the beginning of April was described as 'solid' by chief executive, Steve Holiday. "We reconfirm our positive outlook for 2011/12 - we expect to deliver another year of good operating performance, although, as previously highlighted, comparative financial results will show some impact from the timing differences that benefited 2010/11," Holiday said.

Strong growth in developing markets helped household and healthcare products group Reckitt Benckiser offset weakness in Europe to post pre-tax profits of £1.04bn, up from £971m over the same period the previous year, on revenues that soared to £4.62bn from £4.06bn.

Assets under management (AuM) at asset manager Aberdeen Asset Management edged up 2.5% in the second quarter of 2011, to £185.8bn, from £181.2bn at the end of March. Net new business inflows in the corresponding quarter of 2010 totalled £0.3bn.

The chips are down for Wolfson Electronics again. The supplier of chips for hi-tech gadgets such as smartphones and tablet computers fell sharply after it lowered its growth predictions for the full-year. The company, which only last month issued a warning that revenue growth for the full-year would be between 10% and 20%, said it “now anticipates growth of less than 10% on a full-year basis, with the precise outcome dependent on timing of key customer product launches and overall end product sell-through.”

FTSE 100 - Risers
National Grid (NG.) 614.00p +0.66%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,620.00p +0.45%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 294.20p +0.38%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,345.50p +0.34%
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,070.00p +0.29%
Experian (EXPN) 821.50p +0.24%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,156.00p +0.23%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,416.00p +0.21%
BP (BP.) 471.15p +0.17%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,851.00p +0.12%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 35.67p -3.23%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 45.65p -3.14%
Barclays (BARC) 232.85p -2.82%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 353.70p -2.05%
Aviva (AV.) 417.60p -1.83%
Investec (INVP) 498.00p -1.68%
Prudential (PRU) 682.50p -1.66%
Standard Life (SL.) 202.60p -1.65%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 598.50p -1.64%
Schroders (SDR) 1,639.00p -1.56%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 242.50p +2.11%
Savills (SVS) 354.10p +1.23%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 293.60p +1.17%
Unite Group (UTG) 214.50p +0.99%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 487.60p +0.97%
Keller Group (KLR) 462.90p +0.83%
London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 131.00p +0.77%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 455.60p +0.71%
Charter International (CHTR) 791.50p +0.70%
Heritage Oil (HOIL) 256.70p +0.55%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Halfords Group (HFD) 337.00p -3.85%
Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 42.02p -3.18%
JPMorgan Russian Securities (JRS) 652.00p -2.90%
Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 446.00p -2.85%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 137.00p -2.84%
SIG (SHI) 132.40p -2.72%
Misys (MSY) 402.00p -2.71%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 370.30p -2.55%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 115.20p -2.54%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 36.23p -2.35%

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