London midday: Footsie advances on triple witching day

19th Jun 2009 12:12

Footsie looks set to finish a disappointing week on a bright note, an outcome of keen interest to options and futures traders as today is a "triple witching" day when options, index futures and options on index futures all expire on the same day. Insurers lead the advance after Deutsche Bank upgraded its price targets for a number of major players in the life assurance sector. Aviva, Friends Provident and Standard Life are the best performers, along with Prudential, which said this morning that it will add about £800m to its £2bn capital surplus after completing the transfer of its agency business in Taiwan to China Life today.Broker comment also lifts Carnival in the wake of the cruise operator's trading statement yesterday. Evolution Securities and Numis both reacted positively to Carnival's statement, even though the company lowered full-year revenue guidance. In its AGM statement Taylor Wimpey suggested that the UK housing market may be stabilising and "the severe downside scenarios for which we have been planning now appear less likely to materialise."The company said it may increase outlet openings during the second half of the year following continued stability in the UK housing market since April's final results. It leads the FTSE 350 risers and its comments have pulled up rivals Redrow and Barratt. It's also given a boost to builders' merchants Travis Perkins and Wolseley. Troubled private equity group Candover Investments has agreed the sale of oil and gas research house Wood Mackenzie to Charterhouse Capital Partners for an enterprise value of £553m. Candover will receive £36.2m in total, made up of cash now of £19.6m and the rest on an earn-out basis. Dairy Crest said its pension fund has purchased a second bulk annuity, which insures a further tranche of liabilities for pensions in payment. The group also said it has recently begun consultation with employees looking at various options for the future of its final salary scheme.Services group Mavinwood anticipates that the trading out-turn for the document handling division for the twelve months ending 31 December 2009 will be a bit weaker than 2008. Serica Energy said it has been awarded two offshore permits in Morocco. The group has signed agreements to the contiguous areas of Sidi Moussa Offshore and Foum Draa Offshore. The agreements are valid for up to 8 years.White collar recruiter Harvey Nash has traded in line in the first three months of its current year despite a weak market for permanent recruitment and limited visibility. Revenues rose by 3% in the three months to end April.Rupert Murdoch's News International has become the latest publisher to terminate its distribution agreement with Dawson Holdings.FTSE 100 - RisersCarnival (CCL) 1,675.00p +6.62%Man Group (EMG) 304.25p +6.29%Lonmin (LMI) 1,256.00p +6.08%Aviva (AV.) 335.50p +5.42%FTSE 100 - FallersSmith & Nephew (SN.) 454.75p -1.14%Amlin (AML) 321.75p -0.54%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 316.50p -0.16%BAE Systems (BA.) 344.00p -0.15%