London close: FTSE threatens 6000
Footsie fell just shy of finishing the day above 6,000 as it gained renewed impetus towards the end of the day. Financial stocks led the way, and barely 10% of the FTSE 100's constituents failed to participate in the advance.
Hammerson lifted annual net asset value by 3% to 1,545p with rental income holding up strongly. Underlying profit before tax rose by 24.1% to £117.3m. The proposed full year dividend for 2007 rises by 26%. Deutsche Bank reiterated its "buy" recommendation, with 1,400p price target. British Land was up in sympathy, while Land Securities got an extra boost from weekend bid speculation.
Royal Bank of Scotland also pushed ahead on weekend reports it will cover its expected sub-prime losses with asset sales rather than more equity. Results are due Thursday. Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley were ahead on reports that Lloyds TSB is mulling a bid for both, while they are financially stretched.
King of the mortgage lenders HBOS was wanted ahead of results Wednesday, while housebuilder Persimmon firmed up ahead of its full-year results tomorrow.
Aviva also did well prior to its results this week. The insurance sector is mostly higher, but Resolution showed nervousness at the continued delays in the consummation of the takeover by Pearl.
Xstrata crawled higher on news it achieved record production for many of its minerals in 2007, although copper output fell. The miner said it saw record output at its coking and thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, zinc mining and platinum operations.
Other mining heavyweights, however, fell into the red. Antofagasta, Lonmin and Vedanta Resources were among the top fallers.
Miner BHP Billiton said recent heavy rain across Queensland's Bowen Basin in Australia will have a damaging impact on production.
AB Foods was another high profile faller despite saying trading in the first 16 weeks of this year has been up to its expectations, with interim results to show good growth in the group's adjusted operating profit over the same period last year. Fellow food producer Premier Foods was also in the doldrums, hammered by Credit Suisse cutting its price target from 250p to 100p.
Tullow Oil was subdued by disappointment with its Ngassa-1 test drill in Uganda, which is being halted and drilling moved to another location after technical problems.
Meanwhile, energy regulator Ofgem has fined National Grid £41.6m for a breach of competition law in its handling of domestic metering. National Grid said that it was "extremely disappointed" with the decision and will appeal.
Bus and train group Stagecoach motored forward. It said trading since 31 October has remained strong with the overall business performing at the top end of management's expectations. Sector peer Arriva was not to be outdone, as it cruised higher after Deutsche Bank upgraded it to "buy" from "hold".
Waste group Biffa tumbled after rival bidders dropped out, leaving the 350p per share bid from WasteAcquisitionco, formed by Montague Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners, as the only offer.
Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl was marked up after it saw full year profit before tax and intangible amortization jump 8% due to organic growth and strong performance from acquisitions.
Recruitment company Robert Walters rallied Monday on news of a 26% leap in full year profit and comments that it is well placed to ride out the current economic uncertainty. Sector peer Hays stormed ahead in sympathy ahead of its results tomorrow.
Moss Bros shares flew off the shelves today after the menswear retailer received an indicative cash offer in cash at 42p per share from Icelandic investment group Baugur.
Shares in Infoserve surged ahead after the local business search group's suspension was lifted as it announced a major new contract with Google. Shares were suspended on 24 January pending the announcement of this deal, which will see Infoserve become an 'Authorised Google AdWords Reseller'.
Australian iron ore explorer Cape Lambert moved close to a 12-month high after signing a memorandum of understanding with Chinese conglomerate, China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), for the sale of its namesake iron ore project located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Desire Petroleum rose by about a third as the company accepted an offer from "a significant party" wishing to farm-in to some of Desire's prospects around the Falkland Islands.
Civil engineering consultant Waterman reported a 43% jump in half year pre-tax profit and said it is confident it will continue to perform in line with expectations.
Tottenham Hotspur celebrated their victory at Wembley yesterday by putting on a few pence.
Boat electronics specialist Raymarine powered forward after full-year profits surged, despite a slowdown in US as margins improved due to an outsourcing programme.
Investment company Commoditrade shed around one-sixth of its value after disclosing that the challenging conditions seen in the latter part of the year have continued into the current year.
Minerva saw its loss before tax and investment property revaluation movements grow to £6.4m in the six months to 31 December 2007 from £2.3m the year before, but the shares rose after an upbeat statement accompanying results.
Aerospace and defence contractor Ultra Electronics said today it has an excellent basis for further progress in 2008 following an 11% increase in full year headline profit.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 555.00p +8.82%
Persimmon (PSN) 763.50p +6.63%
British Airways (BAY) 278.50p +6.50%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 173.10p +6.07%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,122.00p +5.95%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,626.00p +5.72%
Barclays (BARC) 507.00p +5.62%
Standard Life (SL.) 220.25p +5.51%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 397.00p +5.03%
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HBOS (HBOS) 678.00p +4.95%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Lonmin (LMI) 3,356.00p -3.09%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 850.50p -2.97%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 800.00p -2.44%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,105.00p -1.50%
Schroders NV (SDRC) 825.50p -1.08%
Schroders (SDR) 909.50p -0.98%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 297.50p -0.58%
Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 445.00p -0.45%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 1,999.00p -0.40%
International Power (IPR) 404.75p -0.37%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Charter (CHTR) 868.50p +10.85%
Hays (HAS) 116.00p +9.18%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 243.00p +8.24%
Michael Page International (MPI) 298.75p +7.85%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 587.00p +7.51%
Redrow (RDW) 299.50p +7.44%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 195.00p +7.14%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 436.50p +6.46%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 184.25p +6.35%
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 200.25p +6.23%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Premier Foods (PFD) 97.00p -8.49%
Biffa (BIFF) 345.75p -6.05%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 760.00p -5.35%
Gem Diamonds (GEMD) 870.00p -4.29%
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 309.50p -3.73%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 772.50p -2.52%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 181.50p -2.42%
Chloride Group (CHLD) 183.00p -2.40%
888 Holdings (888) 156.25p -2.19%
Soco International (SIA) 1,982.00p -1.78%
