London open: Early gains for blue chips

15th Jul 2009 08:59

London is pushing on buoyed by yesterday's recovery in the US from an early loss to 27-point gain by the close of play.Better than expected results from Intel and Goldman Sachs appear to have whetted investors' appetites for equities. Land Securities is going well after it said it is beginning to assess acquisition opportunities and is in the process of firming up plans for a start during 2010 on two major London West End developments at Park House, W1, and Selborne House, SW1.The property giant, which raised £756m in a March rights issue to rebuild its balance sheet after huge write-downs, says growing investor interest is now evident for both prime and mid-quality properties.Miners are also in favour, especially on the second line. Fresnillo and Kazakhmys lead the way.Rio Tinto is also up even though it revealed "difficult" conditions at its aluminum business during the second quarter, with production there down 5% on the same time last year. Production cutbacks in response to the sharp fall in demand also had bauxite output down 14% and alumina down 6%.Pub group JD Wetherspoon said like-for-like sales in the 50 weeks to July increased 1.2% and that it is "optimistic" about prospects for the new year. In the period to period to 12 July), overall sales rose 5.2% thanks to an encouraging sales performance from both its existing pubs and new openings. Q4 lfl sales fell 0.8% and total sales 3.1%.London Stock Exchange's revenues rallied quarter on quarter in the three months to June, but are still running well below levels seen last year. Against a strong prior year comparative quarter, revenue in first quarter fell 8% to £161.9m and by 12% on a constant currency basis. But revenue was up by 5% and by 7% respectively.Interdealer broker ICAP expects underlying profit for the year to March 2010 to be in line with expectations, providing exchange rates remain at current levels for the remainder of the year. Revenue grew by over 10% in the quarter ended 30 June 2009 compared with the same period in the previous year.Social housing firm Connaught has made a £13.3m recommended offer for environment services firm Fountains. The group, which said today that it was confident of delivering full-year results in line with expectations, also confirmed it is in final negotiations to acquire two compliance services businesses.