London open: Oil groups lift Footsie

11th Feb 2011 09:00

Footsie has rallied from a weak start with resources stocks sparking into life and buyers encouraged by some bid activity among the mid-caps.Support services group Carillion is moving up nicely after agreeing to pay £306.5m for green support services business Eaga. In a deal recommended by Eaga bosses, shareholders will get 118.79p a share in cash and receive the 1.21p interim dividend, taking the total to 120p.Tullow Oil and Cairn Energy are going well with the oil price heading higher even though oil producers' cartel Opec says it will up production to keep prices stable. Online delivery service Ocado has tumbled after it confirmed 11% shareholder John Lewis has sold its stake now that the lock-up period following last July's float has ended. Shares in Ocado have risen 50% over the last month. Emergency repair service provider Homeserve is still predicting a year of strong growth with profit matching City expectations. Customer and policy numbers were both 14% higher at the end of 2010 than at the same time the previous year, up to 4.8m and 10.9m respectively. Pubs group Mitchells and Butlers has named senior independent director Simon Burke as its new chairman, taking over from John Lovering who steps down today. Burke has been on the board as non-executive deputy chairman since January 2010. He's also chairman of HobbyCraft and a non-executive director of the BBC Executive Board. Shaftesbury, the property company focused on London's theatre-land district, said demand for its properties has remained healthy since the end of September. Investment activity in the area is on the up and is predicted to increase over the next 12 months. Oil group JKX Oil and Gas is to fund the drilling of up to seven more wells in Hungary. JKX will fund 66.67% of drilling and completion costs to earn 50% of future mining plots formed to develop discoveries, and will also fund 75% of pipeline connection costs. Costs for a completed well are estimated at $3m gross.