London afternoon: Blue chips drifting along

1st Oct 2009 14:05

Footsie has recovered a little ahead of the US open, but the index is still in the red with weapons group BAE Systems especially under the cosh. Early indications are for the Dow to drop between 15-18 points, with intital jobless claims a bit higher than expected. The big jobs figure comes tomorrow with the monthly non-farm payrolls.BAE is lower after the The Serious Fraud Office asked the Attorney General if it can prosecute BAE over alleged bribery in a number of countries. The SFO is deciding if it should investigate claims the UK firm paid backhanders to win contracts overseas in the Czech Republic, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania. It's understood that the company may not be prosecuted this time either, but could be told to pay a fine of between £500m and £1bn. Persistent talk that Resolution is circling L&G had the insurer higher again in early deals, while yesterday's upgrade by Deutsche Bank helped. The broker also thinks Aviva is undervalued. The insurer confirmed today it has completed the reattribution of the 'inherited estate' in its CGNU and CULAC with-profit funds worth £470m to policyholders. It has also completed the A$925m (£452m) sale of its Australian life and pensions business and wealth management platform, Aviva Australia Holdings, to National Australia Bank. Vedanta is leading the risers following some positive broker comments, but other miners, including Antofagasta, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Randgold Resources and Fresnillo, fall backICAP is also down. The Interdealer broker expects revenue to increase by about 6% in the half year to 30 September, but profit before tax, amortisation and impairment of intangibles arising on consolidation and exceptional items to be slightly lower than last year. Profit for the year ending 31 March 2010 is seen in line with expectations of £309m-354m. Things are better over at Domino's Pizza. Concerns that the hot summer might have slowed growth proved unfounded as the company boasted of an exceptionally strong third quarter. 'As a result of strong trading in the third quarter, the board believes it is on track to exceed market expectations for the full year,' said boss Chris Moore.News that sales volumes and turnover are ahead of forecasts at Robert Wiseman, helped the Scottish dairy group advance. It is confident that half-year profits will beat expectations. Overall milk sales volumes are up over 10% on last year.Elsewhere, stockbroker and fund manager Brewin Dolphin said third quarter performance has been strong and results for the full year should be at the upper end of the board's expectations.Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey has bought the assets of Applied Utility Systems from Catalytic Solutions for $8.5m in cash plus $1.5m subject to certain contingencies.3i Infrastructure says its investment portfolio continues to perform satisfactorily while continuing to deliver an attractive yield. In the six months to the end of September the infrastructure investment company invested £32m, with the main investment since its last update on 15 July being a further £5m pumped into a junior facility issued by Viridian, a company which operates both regulated and unregulated businesses within the Irish energy markets.VT Group, now a pure support services company since getting out of the shipbuilding business, is on course to meet the board's expectations for the full year.Engineering support services group Redhall tumbled after admitting profit for the year ended 30 September could be marginally below current market expectations.But investors rushed to buy shares in Grainger Thursday as the residential property group boosted its liquidity position after agreeing new banking facilities.