London midday: FTSE 100 seeking direction

21st Apr 2011 12:03

Shares have paused for breath following sharp jump yesterday. William Hill raced ahead after the bookmaker reported good growth in its retail and online operations in the 13 weeks to 29 March. Total revenues were up by 11% from the same period a year ago, with retail seeing an 8% rise and online revenues soaring by 26%. Group operating profit climbed by 21%. Peer Ladbrokes is also in demand.However, elsewhere in gambling online gaming group Bwin party is under the cosh following a downbeat note from Investec. A sharp improvement in the share price of its biggest investment, Hugo Boss, contributed to a strong increase in the net asset value (NAV) of investment firm SVG Capital, another riser today, in the first quarter. Adjusted NAV at the end of March stood at £1,108m, an 11% increase on the year-end value, which stood at just below £1bn. NAV per share was 350.6p on a fully diluted basis. Strong trading in the nine weeks to 27 March leave Sports Direct confident that it will meet its profit targets for 2010/11. The sports shop operator said total sales were up by 10.3% from the same period a year ago at £236m, with gross profits climbing by 7.3% to £88m.It was a soggy first quarter for mining giant Anglo American which saw rainfall hinder production of iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper, though output of platinum, nickel, thermal coal and diamonds increased.Gold miners have also been updating. Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk is on course to hit its 2011 production targets after gold production increased 15% in the first quarter from a year earlier. In total the group produced 75,400 ounces of gold in the first quarter, compared to 65,600 ounces in the corresponding period of 2010. But, Tanzania-focused gold miner Africa Barrick Gold said gold production fell 2% in the first quarter year on year to 173,907 troy ounces while net profit fell 5%. Net profit fell to $50.4m for the three months ended 31 March 2011. Revenue increased 20% to $267m compared to $221.6m the year before. EBITDA increased to $105m for the quarter compared to $99.7m before. The total value of new sales reservations taken in the year to date has increased by around 12% when compared to the same period last year, house building firm Persimmon said. "Our order book, including legal completions already achieved this year, now stands at a similar level to last year at £1.14bn," it added.Meanwhile, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said the UK housing market remains resilient as it reported that trading is in line with expectations. It said it expects the UK market to remain relatively flat for the rest of the year, echoing comments made earlier in the day by fellow housebuilder Persimmon. Insurance firms have been busy with their calculators in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Japan last month. Beazley said the net cost of catastrophes in Australia, New Zealand and Japan is estimated to be $154m. Insurance underwriter Lancashire Holdings, which has more than recovered from the share price tumble it suffered in the wake of the Japanese earthquake, said it expects to take a $75m hit from claims arising from the natural disaster.A consortium including the chief executive of Individual Restaurant Company (IRC) have made an offer for the upmarket restaurant chain operator. Chief executive Steven Walker, together with Malcolm Walker, Tarsem Dhaliwal and Paul Dawes, who between them own more than half of IRC's shares, announced an offer of 9.5p a share for IRC. The shares jumped after the announcement, but the company's independent directors are not recommending that shareholders accept the offer. FTSE 100 - RisersTUI Travel (TT.) 238.40p +2.80%John Wood Group (WG.) 697.00p +2.42%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 945.00p +2.38%Barclays (BARC) 300.95p +2.22%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,644.00p +1.99%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,918.00p +1.97%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 664.40p +1.93%Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,450.00p +1.91%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 41.97p +1.77%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 60.12p +1.74%FTSE 100 - FallersVodafone Group (VOD) 172.15p -2.55%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,270.00p -1.93%Carnival (CCL) 2,392.00p -1.64%United Utilities Group (UU.) 612.00p -1.37%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,305.00p -1.29%Whitbread (WTB) 1,685.00p -1.29%Kingfisher (KGF) 274.30p -1.08%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 221.00p -1.07%International Power (IPR) 322.50p -1.07%Centrica (CNA) 328.60p -1.02%FTSE 250 - RisersWilliam Hill (WMH) 214.70p +8.16%SVG Capital (SVI) 274.50p +6.85%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 482.50p +3.99%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 278.80p +3.64%Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 337.60p +3.43%Supergroup (SGP) 1,524.00p +3.39%Ladbrokes (LAD) 148.30p +3.06%Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 169.80p +2.91%International Personal Finance (IPF) 356.20p +2.80%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 38.28p +2.79%FTSE 250 - FallersBwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 158.00p -8.41%Rotork (ROR) 1,664.00p -3.93%CPP Group (CPP) 123.00p -3.07%Avis Europe (AVE) 187.70p -2.75%Redrow (RDW) 123.60p -2.14%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 45.45p -1.84%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 879.00p -1.79%Beazley (BEZ) 130.80p -1.73%Cobham (COB) 226.10p -1.65%Bunzl (BNZL) 726.50p -1.62%