London open: Slow progress for blue chips

29th Oct 2010 08:42

London has made modest early gains despite a poor session in Asia and unconvincing display on Wall Street overnight.British Airways is lower even though it swung to a profit in the first half as the airline improved yields and cut costs. It made a pre-tax profit of £158m in the six months ended 30 September compared a loss of £292m a year ago. Revenue jumped 8% to £4.45bn due to improved yields.WPP was also upbeat. The ad giant upped like-for-like revenues by 4.1% in the first nine months of its current year as companies restarted advertising spending after the recession with traditional ad spending outstripping online. Total revenue rose by 6.3% to £6.69bn with third quarter sales up 12.2% to £2.3bn. Operating margins also improved over last year.Prudential and Aviva are the best performers alongside oil groups Cairn, BP and Royal Dutch Shell.AstraZeneca will receive a $100m upfront payment from Daiichi Sankyo after agreeing a deal for the co-promotion and supply of Nexium, a proton pump inhibitor, in Japan. The Anglo-Swedish drugs giant will co-promote the product, used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and stomach ulcers, once it is approved for use in Japan, making and developing the product, while Daiichi Sankyo will deal with distribution. Fund manager F&C Asset Management halted the recent outflow of funds in the past three months, but cautioned business may be weaker to the end of the year. Assets under management rose to £108.2bn from £95.3bn at the end of June. "While we are making good progress in our institutional business..., institutional asset flows remain lumpy from quarter to quarter. After a strong third quarter we currently anticipate weaker headline institutional asset flows in the fourth quarter," FCAM said.Hikma Pharmaceuticals becomes the second largest injectables supplier in the US after agreeing to pay $112m (£70m) in cash for Baxter Healthcare's generic injectables business. Oil services group Hunting expects to exceed current full year market expectations after trading remained very strong between July and October.FTSE 100 - RisersPrudential (PRU) 640.00p +1.51%Aviva (AV.) 398.50p +1.48%Cairn Energy (CNE) 392.80p +1.45%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.87p +1.43%BG Group (BG.) 1,207.50p +1.43%FTSE 100 - FallersSmith & Nephew (SN.) 552.50p -1.34%Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,054.00p -1.25%Xstrata (XTA) 1,237.50p -1.00%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,264.00p -0.94%FTSE 250 - RisersHikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 770.50p +4.62%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 20.05p +4.16%Hunting (HTG) 626.00p +3.81%Afren (AFR) 128.10p +2.07%CPP Group (CPP) 255.00p +2.00%FTSE 250 - FallersPremier Foods (PFD) 17.61p -2.17%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 231.10p -1.87%Savills (SVS) 319.60p -1.72%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 637.50p -1.62%Senior (SNR) 135.40p -1.53%