London midday: Market follows Man higher

4th Nov 2010 12:54

After a morning of holding its breath waiting for the Bank of England's pronouncement on quantitative easing, the admittedly small hopes that the Bank would follow the US central bank's lead and resume its asset buy-back programme were crushed by the announcement of maintenance of the status quo.Nevertheless, it was a good morning for London with miners doing particularly well on hopes that the Fed's stimulus measures will help sustain the global economic recovery. ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata move ahead.Mining giant BHP Billiton is the best performer in the sector, however, after yesterday evening's announcement that the Canadian government has blocked the Anglo-Australian firm's proposed $38.6bn takeover of fertiliser giant Potash. Despite BHP Billiton's strong showing, Man Group is the pick of the blue-chips after the hedge fund manager 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 even though underlying sales growth eased off in the third quarter, despite a strong performance in emerging markets. 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. Underlying price growth was negative at -1.2%, though this represented an improvement on previous quarters, and this trend is expected to continue for the remainder of 2010. For the first nine months of 2010 price growth was negative at -2.1%. 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%. 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. 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. 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. 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.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 281.50p +10.96%Unilever (ULVR) 1,918.00p +5.97%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,396.50p +5.11%British Airways (BAY) 287.30p +4.82%Xstrata (XTA) 1,338.00p +4.82%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,434.00p +4.75%Invensys (ISYS) 300.00p +4.57%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 928.50p +4.56%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,351.00p +4.49%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,381.00p +4.38%FTSE 100 - FallersRolls-Royce Group (RR.) 625.00p -4.51%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 282.70p -2.52%Experian (EXPN) 726.50p -1.82%Next (NXT) 2,143.00p -1.70%ARM Holdings (ARM) 339.60p -1.68%Serco Group (SRP) 551.50p -1.61%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 413.70p -1.38%Capita Group (CPI) 737.00p -1.01%Bunzl (BNZL) 736.50p -0.61%BAE Systems (BA.) 341.10p -0.58%