London afternoon: Footsie holds above 5,600

11th Mar 2010 14:32

A steady decline continued through lunch, but London bounced off 5,600 despite a weak start on Wall Street as mining sector losses narrowed very slightly.Falling commodity prices have damaged miners Thursday. Investors decided to take profits in Fresnillo, Randgold, Rio Tinto, ENRC, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Xstrata. Smith & Nephew is also under the weather after coming out on the wrong side of a patent trial result in the US. The UK medical devices maker was found by a US jury to have infringed two patents held by wound-care specialist Kinetic Concepts.South African insurer Old Mutual is also in the red despite resuming dividend payments following a better second half. The group is exploring the sale of US Life and a partial flotation of its US asset management business. A US Asset Management deal, which the firm said would bankroll growth, is expected within three years. Supermarket group Wm Morrison saw a sharp jump in profits in the year to 31 January as its value offering continued to attract customers during tough times. However, investors reacted to a slowdown in like for like sales growth and ditched the shares. Like for like sales excluding fuel and VAT were up by 6% in the year to 31 January, lower than the 8.2% growth seen the previous year and down from the 6.5% growth seen in the 6 weeks to 3 January 2010.On the upside, B&Q-owner Kingfisher received a leg-up from Home Retail's decent numbers. The Argos and Homebase operator said benchmark profit before tax for the year will be around £290m, slightly ahead of current market expectations. In the 8 weeks to 27 February, total sales at Argos fell 6.6% to £537m. Like-for-like sales declined by 9.4%, which included the approximate 3% negative impact of the later launch of the Spring/Summer catalogue, as well as an adverse impact of poor weather in this short and low volume period. Thomas Cook and TUI Travel are enjoying a spell in the sun after the former held an investor day yesterday. Thomas Cook outlined how it intends to 'move towards being a 5.5 - 6.0% earnings before interest and tax [EBIT] margin business over the next 3 - 5 years,' according to broker Panmure Gordon, which has a 'buy' recommendation and 315p price target on the stock. Thomas Cook believes the European online travel agency market offers it the chance to build a business with £3.0-£3.5bn of gross sales, 'translating into £400-£450m of revenues with margins on a par with market leaders (Expedia, Priceline, Opodo and Orbitz)' Panmure Gordon said.Oil giant BP has beefed up its exploration operations with the acquisition of assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico for $7bn. It will pay North America-focused oil and gas group Devon Energy $7bn for 10 exploration blocks in Brazil, exploration prospects in the US Gulf of Mexico and an interest in the BP-operated Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) development in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan. Drug giant AstraZeneca announced a license and supply agreement with Indian peer Torrent Pharmaceuticals. Under the deal, Torrent will supply a portfolio of generic medicines for which it already has licenses in a range of countries. JD Wetherspoon reinstated its dividend as the pub group reported half year sales and profits at record levels. Pre-tax profit in the 26 weeks ended 24 January was £36.2m, an increase of 17.5% on a pre-exceptional basis (2009: £30.8m) and a jump of 41.4% (2009: £25.6m) after exceptional items. Regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press revealed a sharp decline in full year operating profit but said pressure on advertising revenues had started to improve in 2010. The constant nature of Dignity's business helped the funeral service provider post a rise in revenues and profits in the year to 25 December. Pre-tax profits climbed to £37.5m from £35.4m on revenues that rose to £184.7m from £175.8m.Cinema operator Cineworld saluted the success of 3D films such as Avatar in drawing crowds to the cinema as it posted a rise in sales and profits. In the 53 weeks to December 31, pre-tax profits rose to £30.8m from £27.6m over the previous period as revenues rose to £333.4m from £298.9m. IT infrastructure services provider Computacenter reported a better than expected 26% rise in full-year pre-tax profit and said it enters 2010 in good shape. Adjusted pre-tax profit increased to £54.2m in the year ended 31 December compared with £43.1m in the previous period. However, revenues decreased slightly to £2.50bn from £2.56bn.Premier Oil has found oil at its wildcat well 34/5-1 S on the Norwegian Blåbaer exploration, near the Snorre field in the North Sea, although another target area turned out to be dry.Shares in security camera firm Indigovision fell sharply after it said first half profit was unchanged from the previous year and added that the economic backdrop remains uncertain.