London open: Footsie shrugs off bank weakness

18th Dec 2009 08:45

London's blue chips have opened higher despite another weak showing from the banks after harsher than expected recommendations from the Basel Committee yesterday.Shares in all four fell heavily yesterday on the news and Barclays, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered are all lower again today. The Basel Committee said banks will have to to accept a significantly lower return on equity in future to rebuild their financial strength.Miners are keeping Footsie in the blue with Xstrata and Vedanta the best performers alongside power groups International Power and Scottish & Southern.Port operator Forth Ports said it expects full year results to be at the lower end of expectations due to weak trading in its Nordic recycling division and in its container services operations at Tilbury port near London.But temporary power supplier Aggreko says trading has been better than expected during the last three months of the year, leaving 2009 operating profit up by more than a quarter.Ground engineering specialist Keller confirmed that it is on track to meet full year expectations. In its Interim Management Statement on 12 November, the group reported that both revenues and margins since the first half had been below the comparable period in 2008.Online gaming group Partygaming expects underlying earnings this year to be slightly ahead of market forecasts after solid trading since September. Revenue is expected to be in line with expectations, its statement added, with all four of its product streams showing quarter-on-quarter net growth.Ryanair said it has no plans to reopen discussions with Boeing or any other aircraft manufacturers after talks between the two groups on new aircraft orders were terminated unsuccessfully. Topps Tiles has effectively shut down its Dutch operation after withdrawing financial support from the loss-making subsidiary. The cost will be £1m and be reflected in the next figures. The Dutch subsidiary comprises 12 stores and accounted for 4% of the group's revenue in 2009, but made a loss of £4.9m.