London afternoon: Morning's gains consolidated

4th Nov 2010 14:23

Since the Bank of England's noon announcement extinguished the small hopes of Britain joining the US in reviving its quantitative easing programme, leading shares have marked time. Miners are still doing particularly well on hopes that the Fed's stimulus measures will help sustain the global economic recovery. ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata are all up 5% or more.Mining giant BHP Billiton is enjoying a similar sort of boost, after yesterday evening's announcement that the Canadian government has blocked the Anglo-Australian firm's proposed $38.6bn takeover of fertiliser giant Potash. Even the miners trail in the wake of Man Group, which is the pick of the blue-chips after the hedge fund manager reported its first quarter of positive institutional flows in more than two years.Man saw funds under management in the three months to September 30 rise to $40.5bn (£25.2bn) from $38.5bn 'due to strong investment performance and favourable FX movements.'In other sectors, Anglo-Dutch household goods giant Unilever is higher after making some optimistic noises about future price trends. Underlying price growth in the third quarter was negative at -1.2%, though this represented an improvement on previous quarters, and the trend is expected to continue for the remainder of 2010. For the first nine months of 2010 price growth was negative at -2.1%. Third quarter turnover at the Knorr soup and Dove soap group was up 13.2% at €11.55bn from €10.20bn a year earlier, ahead of some market forecasts of €11.35bn. Supermarket Morrisons is missing out on the fun after a rise in sales failed to impress. In a brief statement, the company said total sales excluding fuel were up by 2.8%, with like-for-like sales up by 1.3%. Rolls-Royce is also an exception after Aussie airline Qantas grounded its fleet of new Super Jumbo Airbuses after an engine exploded. Rolls made the engine in question.Insurer RSA Group maintained top line momentum in the third quarter despite challenging trading conditions. Net written premiums in the first nine months of 2010 totalled £5.53bn, up 10% from £5.03bn the year before. With exchange rate fluctuations stripped out the rise was 7%. Old Mutual's planned disposal of its US hedge fund Harbinger Capital is on track with completion expected at the end of this year, the South African life group reiterated today.Telecoms giant BT is firmer after it said changes to its pension scheme rules will reduces the IAS [International Accounting Standards] 19 accounting valuation of the scheme's liabilities by around £2.9bn. The change has been prompted by the government's decision to switch to using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI) as the basis for determining the rate of inflation for the statutory revaluation and indexation of occupational pension rights.Telecoms group Cable & Wireless Communications saw a dip in profits in the year to September 30 against what it described as a 'mixed economic backdrop' across the exotic regions it serves. Pre-tax profits fell to $204m from $223m even as revenues rose to $1.16m from $1.13m. The shares take a tumble on fears that the dividend may not be sustainable. Engineering firm Invensys said it was reassured by the government's commitment to invest in infrastructure such as the London Underground and the Crossrail project as it posted higher revenues, though profits were impacted by contract implementation costs. In the half year to September 30, pre-tax profits fell to £75m from £88m over the same period the previous year as revenues climbed to £1.16bn from £1.07bn. News Corporation's attempt to take complete ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB suffered a setback after Business Secretary Vince Cable referred it to industry regulator Ofcom to decide if it is against the public interest.In the FTSE 250, oil and gas group Melrose Resources is strong after it announced its first production from gas fields off the Bulgarian coast. Sector peer Kenmare Resources is flavour of the day after Bank of America Merrill Lynch initiated coverage of the stock with a "buy" recommendation.No-frills airline easyJet said it carried 4.6m passengers in October, up 8.6% from the same period last year. The October load factor increased to 88.2% from 86.8% in 2009, making 87.1% for the rolling 12 months. Meggitt, the maker of components for planes and other equipment, expects the recent defence review to have a 'minimal impact' on 2011 revenues.First quarter like-for-like sales at pub chain JD Wetherspoon increased 1.6% while total sales in the period rose 7.3%. International Hotel Group Millennium & Copthorne nearly doubled profits in the third quarter as it took advantage of improved economic conditions to lift room rates.Shares in Tate & Lyle sweetened after the food ingredients company more than doubled profits on sales that were boosted by higher corn prices. Pre-tax profits in the six months to September 30 climbed to £104m from £45m on sales that rose to £1.35bn from £1.3bn.Speciality pharmaceuticals developer BTG reported an interim operating profit even though lower milestone payments meant that revenues fell in the six months to September 2010.Shares in telecom equipment tester Spirent moved up towards a 12-month high as it reported trading since July has exceeded its expectations. Housebuilders are in demand after house prices staged a surprise rebound in October according to the latest monthly figures from mortgage lender Halifax, though the longer-term trend remains downwards. Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon all charge ahead, dwarfing the gain achieved by sector peer, Redrow , which had its annual general meeting today.Redrow chairman Steve Morgan said: ""Like for like private home sales in the financial year to date are some 9% up on the same period last year at £133m, which has been achieved on 6% fewer reservations."Shares in Charter International fell sharply after the industrial engineer announced the full year earnings outcome will be at the lower end of analysts' forecasts.Waste management firm Shanks revealed a 2% increase in interim pre-tax profit despite difficult trading conditions.