London midday: Stocks advance on Euro hopes

27th Sep 2011 12:00

Stocks have built on their early morning gains as optimism that some kind of end to the Eurozone crisis is in sight continues. Talks are still ongoing about an expansion of the European Financial Stability Fund, with conflicting signals over whether an agreement is near failing to put investors off.RBS leads the way as banks continue their strong performance from yesterday, while silver specialist Fresnillo leads the mining sector's recovery.Optimism that European leaders are making progress on the debt crisis continues to gain ground.Even Daily Mail publisher DMGT is participating in the market advance. The group has warned that full year operating profit will be down from the previous year, while earnings per share will be at the lower end of market expectations due to the weak consumer advertising environment. In the 11 months to the end of August, revenue was up by 1% from the same period the previous year, with the specialist business publications arm providing strong growth.Merchant bank Close Brothers saw adjusted operating profit from continuing operations increase 13% from a year earlier to £131m and adjusted EPS increase 11% to 64.8p in the year ended July 31st. The group saw a "strong performance" from its Banking division which increased operating profits by 34% from a year earlier. Pubs group Mitchells & Butlers saw a 2.7% year-on-year increase in like-for-like sales (LFL) in the first 51 weeks of its financial year, though LFL growth has slowed to 0.5% in the 9 weeks to 17 September. Food sales at the bid target in the 9 week period were up 1.1% on a LFL basis, while drink sales edged up 0.2%. The group said the UK consumer environment remains challenging, while cost pressures are likely to endure into next year.Irn-Bru maker AG Barr saw a quickening of sales growth in its second quarter. Second quarter sales were up 5.1% from a year earlier, taking half-year sales growth up to 4%. Underlying profit before tax was marginally higher at £16.2m from £16.0m at the interim stage last year. The group said it is on course to meeting its expectations for the full year.Game Group, the high street computer games retailer which has seen its share price fall two thirds in the last year, falls back after it posted a like-for-like sales drop of 9.9% in the first half of the year compared to the same period of 2010. The disastrous interim figures show total turnover down 10.5% to £558.8m, with gross margins down nearly 2% to 24.3%. But suit retailer Moss Brothers is in fashion. It has shrugged off the recent economic weakness to record trading ahead of expectations and is on course to deliver better than expected growth levels by the year end, it said today. In the period between the end of January and the end of July, it said like-for-like sales were up by 15.4%. Pre-tax profits on continuing operations came in at £2.2m, against a loss of £2.8m over the same period the previous year. Also in retail, shares in Topps Tiles soared after the tile and flooring retailer said it expects to report revenues of £175.7m for the year to 1 October, down from £182.4m the previous year. It also says like-for-like revenues will decrease by 1.9%.AIM-listed tiddler Europe Oil and Gas falls back after being hit by a tax bill of €730,000 by the Romanian authorities following its sale of the Bilca gas field in 2007. The Romanian government says value added tax should have been paid on the transaction.The South Africa focused gold mining company, Central Rand Gold, has seen its share price fall 56% following the suspension of its "mining right" - in essence its license to mine. The company says its right has been cancelled because of contraventions of the Mining Work Programme and Social Labour Plan.FTSE 100 - RisersVedanta Resources (VED) 1,172.00p +9.53%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 847.50p +8.38%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,021.00p +7.47%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,622.00p +6.43%Xstrata (XTA) 869.80p +6.07%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,540.00p +6.00%Essar Energy (ESSR) 258.40p +5.47%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,687.00p +5.37%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 579.00p +5.27%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,292.00p +5.13%FTSE 100 - FallersAssociated British Foods (ABF) 1,136.00p -0.09%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,537.00p +0.12%National Grid (NG.) 625.50p +0.32%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 288.40p +0.45%Unilever (ULVR) 1,993.00p +0.61%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,338.00p +0.64%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,290.00p +0.70%Capita Group (CPI) 707.00p +0.71%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 329.40p +0.73%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,507.00p +0.87%FTSE 250 - RisersInternational Personal Finance (IPF) 218.80p +11.35%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 253.40p +10.17%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 305.80p +7.94%Misys (MSY) 231.40p +7.68%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 38.00p +6.98%Ocado Group (OCDO) 97.25p +6.87%Premier Oil (PMO) 340.20p +6.85%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 504.50p +6.77%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 31.47p +6.68%Logica (LOG) 79.00p +6.54%FTSE 250 - FallersRank Group (RNK) 118.00p -3.52%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 832.50p -3.20%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,374.00p -3.06%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 107.30p -1.74%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 38.14p -1.29%Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 249.90p -1.03%Sports Direct International (SPD) 220.00p -0.77%Savills (SVS) 291.40p -0.72%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 248.40p -0.64%KCOM Group (KCOM) 70.35p -0.57%