London close: Stocks end with slight gains
London's top stocks ended the day with slight gains as the market meandered in the afternoon with no direction from Wall Street, which was closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Banks posted the best gains with Barclays, HBOS, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland among the best performers. Insurer Standard Life was up ahead of tomorrow's interims.
ICAP was better after Morgan Stanley upped its price target on the shares to 550p from 515p and kept the interdealer broker as 'equal-weight'.
Oil giants BP, BG and Royal Dutch Shell were weaker. Utilities were also amongst the sliders with Centrica, Severn Trent and Kelda Group down.
Airline British Airways rose on a Sunday Times report which said it may divide a $15bn aircraft contract between manufacturers Boeing and Airbus.
A Goldman Sachs upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' helped miner Lonmin improve aided by a price target hike to 4,120p from 3,945p.
The broker added Xstrata to its Conviction Buy List due to its exposure to rising copper and zinc prices and raised its target to 3,840p, although BHP Billiton is removed from the list but stays a 'buy' with target up to 1,715p.
A stack of mid-caps reported interims. Insulation board specialist Kingspan says that it is confident that the operating outcome for the year as a whole will exceed last year's profit performance of €194m by at least 20%. The Irish group posted interim profits up by 30% to €108m.
Investment management firm Hargreaves Lansdown reported underlying operating profit up 67% in its first preliminary results since listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in May.
Taylor Nelson, the market research group, is confident of prospects after a solid first half performance across all regions and sectors. Profit before tax in the first half of 2007 rose 13% to £33.9m from £30m.
Car dealer Lookers posted record half-year figures, in line with expectations, and said it remains confident for the outlook of the remainder of 2007. Pre-tax profit for the six months ended 30 June jumped 40% to £18.1m on turnover 21% higher at £878.9m. Adjusted profit before tax was up 6%.
Serviced office group Regus saw first half profits jump by 72% to £53.6m, adding that it remained confident of continued progress into the second half. Revenue rose 36% to £411.5m.
Testing and inspections group Intertek did well Monday before succumbing to profit taking. It posted a 7.1% increase in first half pre-tax profit and raised expectations of a strong second half.
Recruiter Robert Walters lifted interim profits by 41% to £11.4m adding that current trading remained strong. The interim dividend rises by 17% to 1.35p per share.
Cardinal Resources was chased higher after the Ukraine focused oil and gas company said it was in takeover talks.
Photo-Me International said Chairman Vernon Sankey has decided to step down with immediate effect due to pressure from activist investors, while CEO Serge Crasnianski will also leave.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Barclays (BARC) 638.00p +3.99%
ICAP (IAP) 501.00p +2.66%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,299.00p +2.36%
Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA) 144.10p +1.84%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,556.00p +1.70%
Schroders (SDR) 1,346.00p +1.66%
British Airways (BAY) 431.25p +1.65%
Xstrata (XTA) 2,953.00p +1.65%
Compass Group (CPG) 330.25p +1.62%
HBOS (HBOS) 892.50p +1.54%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 169.60p -2.08%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,430.00p -1.99%
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BG Group (BG.) 781.50p -1.57%
BP (BP.) 550.50p -1.26%
Diageo (DGE) 1,047.00p -1.13%
Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,677.00p -0.82%
Friends Provident (FP.) 177.50p -0.78%
Yell Group (YELL) 448.50p -0.61%
Centrica (CNA) 383.25p -0.58%
Experian Group (EXPN) 520.00p -0.57%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,790.00p +8.10%
HMV Group (HMV) 132.75p +7.71%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 580.00p +7.41%
Assura Group (AGR) 183.25p +6.08%
UK Coal (UKC) 550.00p +5.57%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 234.25p +5.04%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 357.50p +4.84%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 252.50p +4.77%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 299.00p +4.55%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 203.00p +4.24%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
TUI Travel (TT.) 285.50p -3.47%
Venture Production (VPC) 721.00p -3.29%
Northgate (NTG) 1,080.00p -3.23%
RPS Group (RPS) 372.50p -2.99%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 953.50p -2.90%
Premier Oil (PMO) 987.00p -2.85%
Detica Group (DCA) 306.00p -2.70%
Johnston Press (JPR) 377.00p -2.14%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 319.50p -2.07%
Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) 338.75p -2.02%
