London close: Footsie suffers hiccup

4th Mar 2010 16:40

The blue chip index failed to stretch its winning streak to a fifth session, falling for the first time this week on negative results reaction and downbeat miners.It held above 5,500 all day despite coming close just after trade began and towards the end of play.Engineering and project management firm Amec took the wooden spoon as investors react badly to a 3% slip in revenues, or 12% on an underlying basis, in 2009 amid tough economic conditions.Admiral extended losses after Tuesday's full-year results as Merrill Lynch cut the car insurance company to "neutral" from "buy" on valuation grounds.Insurer Aviva must have expected a better response after 2009 profit beat forecasts. The share price was under pressure all day as analysts focused on a weaker than expected book value.A drop in metal prices also hurt London's performance Thursday. Fresnillo, ENRC, Randgold, Xstrata and Anglo American were among the biggest fallers. Kazakhmys fell through the afternoon despite increasing copper production last year to a bigger than expected 320,000 tonnes.The day's outcome could have been worse had it not been for fund manager Schroders, which said it had got off to a good start in 2010 following record net inflows and funds under management last year.As expected, the Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5% and taken no further action on quantitative easing (QE) amid conflicting signals over the state of the UK economy.House prices fell by 1.5% in February breaking a run of seven consecutive monthly increases. The average house price in the UK is now £166,587, still more than 4.5% higher than a year ago, according to High Street lender the Halifax. Elsewhere, a mixed statement from Cobham brought out the sellers. Underlying profit before tax increased 21% to £295m in 2009, towards the top end of the range of analysts' forecasts. But the Mission Systems and commercial markets businesses are finding it tough and earnings are expected to be more than usually weighted to the second half.Scottish temporary power solutions provider Aggreko is another faller even after it reported record revenues, profits and margins in 2009, helped by foreign exchange tailwinds.Leisure group Whitbread posted continuing double-digit sales growth at its coffee shop chain Costa and a move into like-for-like (LFL) sales growth at its hotel chain Premier Inn. Petrofac wants to hive off its UK Continental Shelf assets into a new company to be formed with Swedish oil and company Lundin Petroleum. The new company, called EnQuest, will be 45% owned by Petrofac shareholders and will be listed on the London stock exchange as well as on the NASDAQ OMS bourse in Stockholm.In the FTSE 250, newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror is higher. The publisher of the Daily Mirror saw a sharp fall in profits in 2009 as advertising sales slumped and circulation revenues were squeezed, but said it had seen an improvement in advertising towards the end of the year. Pre-tax profits in the 53 weeks to January 3 fell to £72.7m from £124.2m over the preceding 52 week period on revenues that were down to £763.3m from £871.7m.Galiform is in the red. The joiner posted a fall in revenues in 2009, but the severity of the decline was softened by the company's exposure to public and private sector tenanted housing, which has not experienced the same turmoil as the owner-occupied housing market.Online gaming group PartyGaming fell into the red in the year to December 31 after paying costs for a non-prosecution agreement with the US authorities. The firm posted a net loss $26.5m in the year to December 31 having posted a profit of $66.1m the previous year.Communications technology firm Spirent posted a rise in full year profit as conditions improved. For the year ended 31 December 2009 pre-tax profit rose to £54.1m from £51.4m the year before. Revenue grew by 6% to £272.1m. Car rental firm Avis Europe reported a rise in annual pre-tax profit while revenue shrank 16% as customers continue to cut back on travelling. Pre-tax profit of €4.5m for the year ended 31 December against a profit of €3m the year before after 'rigorous cost cuts'. Revenue fell to €1.4bn from €1.7bn.Mouchel Group is lower after rival support services group VT decided not to proceed with its offer for the company, leaving the field clear for Babcock International.Shares in insurance company Lancashire Holdings took a step back as the company said it was too soon to gauge the effects on first quarter results of the Chilean earthquake.Spirax-Sarco, the engineer that provides services and products for steam-using and specialist peristaltic pumping markets, posted record sales and profits in 2009, with a large helping hand from the weakness of sterling. Adjusted profit before tax, which excludes exceptional charges, edged higher to £90.2m in 2009 from £90.1m but was down 16% in constant currency terms.FTSE 100 - RisersSchroders NV (SDRC) 1,099.00p +6.39%Schroders (SDR) 1,310.00p +5.99%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 39.36p +3.80%Burberry Group (BRBY) 666.00p +2.78%Prudential (PRU) 513.00p +2.60%3i Group (III) 270.50p +2.50%ICAP (IAP) 361.60p +2.32%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,650.00p +2.17%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.89p +2.10%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,700.50p +1.58%FTSE 100 - FallersAmec (AMEC) 765.50p -6.70%Fresnillo (FRES) 812.50p -3.22%Aviva (AV.) 380.00p -2.61%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,210.00p -2.58%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,085.00p -2.12%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,089.00p -1.89%Cobham (COB) 244.10p -1.77%WPP Group (WPP) 624.00p -1.50%Xstrata (XTA) 1,124.50p -1.36%Centrica (CNA) 284.20p -1.32%FTSE 250 - RisersInternational Personal Finance (IPF) 214.20p +7.85%SVG Capital (SVI) 143.00p +6.88%Trinity Mirror (TNI) 155.80p +6.71%Carillion (CLLN) 301.10p +5.10%Dimension Data Holdings (DDT) 95.55p +5.00%DSG International (DSGI) 31.89p +4.39%Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 1,350.00p +4.01%Unite Group (UTG) 262.00p +3.80%Cookson Group (CKSN) 494.50p +3.78%IMI (IMI) 600.00p +3.72%FTSE 250 - FallersGaliform (GFRM) 80.00p -7.51%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 286.20p -3.99%Lamprell (LAM) 243.50p -3.79%Babcock International Group (BAB) 518.00p -3.18%ITV (ITV) 53.40p -2.91%Brewin Dolphin (BRW) 130.80p -2.32%JPMorgan Japanese Inv Trust (JFJ) 169.00p -2.31%BSS Group (BTSM) 269.00p -2.00%Homeserve (HSV) 1,670.00p -1.88%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 360.50p -1.69%