London close: Footsie clings on to gains
A late slide, prompted by reversals on Wall Street, failed to erase all of the day's gains
Medical devices firm Smith & Nephew topped the Footsie leaderboard, adding to yesterday's decent gains, as the healthcare sector returned to favour, thanks to its defensive properties. Sector heavyweight GlaxoSmithkline advanced strongly, despite going ex-div today, while AstraZeneca and Shire also showed healthy rises.
Mining stocks including Kazakhmys, Lonmin and BHP Billiton provided support for the Footsie, rising in line with higher metal prices but Peru-based Hochschild Mining was a major casualty after a shock profit warning.
Telecoms stocks were also in demand, with BT and Vodafone posting good gains, with the latter benefiting from Morgan Stanley upping its price target for the stock from 205p to 215p, on the grounds that the company will benefit from the strength of the euro against sterling. Sector minnow Vyke Communications edged higher after hitting its sales targets for December.
It was a mixed day for retail stocks, however. The British Retail Consortium revealed like-for-like sales across the sector rose by only 0.3% in December, the worst Christmas performance since 2004. Clothing, furniture and DIY chains all suffered from the spending slow-down.
Despite this gloomy news, better than expected statements from second-tier retail chains Alexon, Jessops, Dunelm and Topps Tiles enabled them to defy the downward trend. Food retailer Sainsbury was nervously lower, however, ahead of its trading update on Thursday.
Financials and housebuilders were the worst performing sectors ahead of the interest rate decision on Thursday. Many expect the Bank of England to leave rates on hold. Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, due to issue a trading statement Wednesday, Lloyds TSB and Barclays were all weak.
Oils, meanwhile, saw early gains reversed, with Shell the hardest hit.
Yellow pages publisher Yell Group was on the slide after UBS changed its stance on the stock from "neutral" to "sell".
Elsewhere, no-frills airline Easyjet was lower on its December traffic numbers and dragged down British Airways with it.
On the culinary front, Domino's Pizza saw its gains trimmed. The pizza delivery firm reported a 17.6% increase in total like-for-like sales for the six weeks to 30 December, but said it expects like-for-like sales growth to slow in 2008.
Whitbread and Restaurant Group bounced back from a bad day Monday. Investors were also queuing up for Premium Bars & Restaurants shares after it reported December total group sales were up 103% versus last year, boosted by a strong performance from recent acquisitions.
Car dealer Lookers motored forward after Tony Bramall and his family increased their stake in the company to 19.66%.
Posh estate agent Savills expects to beat market forecasts and says its residential business is holding up well in the face of the current market uncertainty.
White collar recruiter Michael Page lifted fourth-quarter gross profit by 37.6% to a record £128.2m. Full year gross profit was also a record £478.1m, an increase of 37.1%. "We continue to experience strong demand for talent around the globe" it said in a statement.
European newspaper group Mecom slumped even though it predicted like for like underlying profits to be ahead of 2006 and, for the reported 2007 results, within the range of analysts' expectations. Digital revenues in 2007 are expected to have increased by more than 25% over 2006. In 2008, much energy will be focused on expanding existing newspaper sites, it added.
Carr's Milling says trading for the quarter to 1 December 2007 was ahead of both budget and last year's actual, and subsequent trading has accentuated that trend. It is a promising start to the year, it added. However, the outcome for the year to 30 August 2008 will be influenced by the price of milling wheat for the month of August, which is currently difficult to predict.
Data search software company Autonomy is averaging about one contract win announcement a day in 2008 and was higher today after announcing agreements with Oracle, EMC and Inovis.
Financial software group Gresham Computing forecast a significantly improved second half to 2007, with underlying earnings expected to be broadly half of that seen in the first half.
Meanwhile, marketing software specialist Alterian was on the climb after showing a 48% rise in third quarter revenues. E-signature provider Silanis, however, hit the skids after warning that results for 2007 will be materially below its previous expectations owing to delays in the signing of contracts.
Just Retirement, the life assurance group that focuses on customers of retirement age, shed almost a quarter of its value after warning that the drop in long term gilt yields would hit annuity margins.
Oil and gas explorer Ascent Resources failed to live up to its name, as its share price descended after the company said test drilling results from the Anagni-1 well in the Frosinone Exploration Permit in the Latina Valley were not promising.
Natural healthcare products supplier William Ransom rose sharply today as the outgoing chief executive, Timothy Dye, shipped in 900,000 shares in the company at 15p each. Finance director Ian Campbell bought 100,000 shares, also at 15p apiece.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 640.00p +7.29%
BT Group (BT.A) 277.75p +5.21%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,262.00p +3.72%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,335.00p +3.41%
Rexam (REX) 383.00p +3.23%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,538.00p +3.15%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,361.00p +3.03%
British Energy Group (BGY) 588.00p +2.98%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,234.00p +2.95%
Shire (SHP) 1,139.00p +2.61%
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FTSE 100 - Fallers
Yell Group (YELL) 321.75p -6.20%
Persimmon (PSN) 651.50p -4.89%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 171.10p -4.84%
FirstGroup (FGP) 701.00p -4.23%
BG Group (BG.) 1,106.00p -3.41%
British Airways (BAY) 283.75p -2.74%
Prudential (PRU) 671.00p -2.68%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,138.00p -2.24%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,112.00p -2.22%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 245.50p -1.90%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 421.00p +10.79%
Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 990.00p +9.39%
WSP Group (WSH) 598.00p +9.32%
Marshalls (MSLH) 275.00p +8.16%
Connaught (CNT) 377.50p +7.86%
Northern Rock (NRK) 89.75p +6.53%
Savills (SVS) 255.50p +6.46%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 1,982.00p +6.44%
FKI (FKI) 58.25p +5.91%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 174.75p +5.91%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 353.00p -22.76%
easyJet (EZJ) 460.25p -13.89%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 931.50p -8.32%
Redrow (RDW) 272.00p -4.90%
Pennon Group (PNN) 662.50p -4.61%
St James's Place (STJ) 251.75p -4.00%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 167.75p -3.73%
Arriva (ARI) 732.50p -3.62%
Mapeley (MAY) 1,281.00p -3.61%
BSS Group (BTSM) 349.00p -3.32%
