London close: Stronger dollar, miners inspire Footsie
Blue chips rallied late on to finish near their best levels of the session as a weaker pound boosted dollar earners, while well-received results, buoyant miners and a strong start on Wall Street helped.
Plumbing supplies merchant Wolseley, fund manager Amvescap and hedge fund giant Man Group were among the leaders as sterling fell against the greenback following a surprise decline in UK mortgage approvals and stronger than expected US factory orders.
The number of approvals for home purchases came in at 111,000, the lowest since April 2006, from a downwardly revised 117,000 in February.
That was weaker than the 117,000 predicted by economists and follows three interest rate rises since last August that have pushed borrowing costs up to 5.5%.
Platinum giant Lonmin was the top pick though. First half results were adversely impacted by the shutdown and subsequent rebuild of the Number One furnace, but the group said that work completed so far has put it in a good position for the second half.
Other mining counters also did well, buoyed by a rise in metal prices. Heavyweights Rio Tinto, Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Anglo American were among the risers.
Satellite broadcaster BSkyB reported third quarter net customer growth of 51,000, up 28% year-on-year to 8.492m, and ahead of forecasts despite the customer churn rate rising from 11.9% to 13.7%.
Morgan Stanley kept its 640p price target as it believes operating metrics will continue to improve through the rest of the second half, while investment in broadband will begin to show benefits.
Retailer Home Retail shrugged off challenging conditions for consumers as it reported profit before tax goodwill and one-off items up 12% to £376.7m in the year ended 3 March 2007. Vague bid talk, meanwhile, gave supermarket chain Wm Morrison a lift.
The media sector was down in the dumps though as stocks gave back some of yesterday's gains, inspired by News Corps unexpected $5bn bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones. Pearson, Reuters and Daily Mail all fell.
Elsewhere, Alliance Boots reported a 7.4% rise in underlying annual profit to £641m, adding it expects its good trading performance to continue in the current year. The chemist chain recently agreed to a takeover from private equity group KKR and its own deputy chairman Stefano Pessina.
Drug developer Shire said it intends to raise $1bn through an issue of convertible bonds. The proceeds of the offering will provide refinancing on attractive terms for part of the bank facilities put in place for the recent acquisition of New River Pharmaceuticals, it said.
Rentokil Initial's first quarter profit fell 23% to £35.5m, in line with its expectations the support services group said. Adjusted profit was down 4% to £53.9m. Revenue rose 24% to £521.5m. The outlook for the year remains unchanged, the statement added.
Housebuilder Taylor Woodrow, which recently agreed a merger with George Wimpey, said it still expects to trade in line with expectations, amid robust market conditions, although it reiterated that profits will be weighted to the second half.
Northgate IS says that due to the impact of the challenging market conditions in criminal justice and the group's on-going investment in sales and marketing, underlying profits will be towards the lower end of management's expectations. The software group also unveiled a £260m acquisition in Belgium.
Online gamer PartyGaming slumped as it warned costs of acquiring new customers would mean profits this year coming in well below market forecasts.
Bluetooth chip specialist CSR reported strong customer demand, supported by bookings, leading it to predict Q2 revenues of between $195m to $220m.
But there were gains for Rightmove as the property website said it reckons full year pre-tax profit is likely to exceed the company's previous expectations by around 10%.
Among the minnows, Sopheon picked up as first quarter revenues rose by 37%. Aim-listed SerVision rose on a deal with Unixa, a distributor of security equipment in Mexico.
Corporate dentistry firm Oasis Healthcare has rejected a revised indicative proposal from last week's unsuccessful bidder, this time at 65p per share.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Lonmin (LMI) 3,578.00p +7.77%
BSkyB (BSY) 616.50p +5.47%
Man Group (EMG) 581.00p +3.66%
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) 1,976.00p +3.56%
Wolseley (WOS) 1,249.00p +3.31%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 657.00p +3.14%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,386.00p +3.05%
Next (NXT) 2,411.00p +3.03%
British Airways (BAY) 519.00p +2.77%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 823.00p +2.75%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
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Pearson (PSON) 870.50p -3.39%
BAE Systems (BA.) 444.50p -1.98%
Drax (DRX) 771.50p -1.59%
Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) 851.50p -1.28%
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) 525.00p -1.27%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 738.50p -1.01%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,537.00p -0.84%
International Power (IPR) 436.25p -0.80%
Reuters Group (RTR) 491.25p -0.56%
Centrica (CNA) 384.25p -0.52%
FTSE 250 - Risers
First Choice (FCD) 306.00p +7.18%
Rightmove (RMV) 546.00p +6.64%
BlueBay (BBAY) 482.00p +5.47%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 482.75p +5.23%
St Modwen Property (SMP) 687.00p +4.89%
Marston's (MARS) 449.00p +4.42%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 599.00p +4.17%
Jardine Lloyd (JLT) 444.25p +3.55%
Capital and Regional (CAL) 1,577.00p +3.48%
British Energy Group (BGY) 566.75p +3.42%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
PartyGaming (PRTY) 43.00p -7.03%
Northgate Information Solutions (NIS) 82.50p -5.71%
Trinity Mirror (TNI) 533.00p -4.65%
CSR (CSR) 746.50p -2.93%
Enodis (ENO) 202.00p -2.06%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 249.25p -1.87%
Alfred McAlpine (MCA) 465.25p -1.85%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 370.50p -1.66%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,032.00p -1.62%
EMI (EMI) 231.00p -1.49%
