London close: Stocks finish strongly
London's top stocks finished with solid gains as the earlier gains from the real estate sector was supported by a strong start on Wall Street.
Press reports have Covent Garden owner Liberty International in talks to merge with a major rival to become the world's largest shopping mall group. Australia's Westfield Group and GIC Real Estate, the property arm of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, have been named as potential suitors.
Land Securities, British Land, Hammerson and Intercontinental Hotels also joined the advance.
Banking stocks Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Lloyds TSB and Barclays led the fallers as they traded without right to the latest dividend payout. But an upgrade to 'hold' from 'sell' at ABN Amro gave HBOS a boost, while Alliance & Leicester also posted big gains.
Brokers also helped Admiral, which plunged yesterday after it gave a cautious outlook for its Confused.com price comparison website and warned that the UK insurance market was only improving slowly. Merrill Lynch says 'buy' with 1,160p price target.
British Airways jumped into the risers after it said passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 5.3% in February. Staying in the industry, no-frills airliner Ryanair reported a 20% increase in passenger numbers in February.
TV broadcaster ITV is better as it expects to see a 2% increase in net advertising revenues during the first quarter of 2008. The prediction came as the firm posted a 17% drop in 2007 underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation to £311m, roughly in line with expectations.
Contractor Balfour Beatty has reported a 48% jump in profit before tax, exceptional items and amortization to £201m, just ahead of analysts' forecasts. The group said it has a record order books and an exceptionally strong pipeline, leaving it confident of further good progress in 2008.
Paper and packaging group DS Smith has reiterated it expects to make "substantial progress" this year, despite raw material and input prices rising sharply.
Engineering conglomerate Melrose has increased its offer for FKI to 85p per share and has been given permission to study the rival engineer's books.
Regional newspaper giant Johnston Press reported a 6% drop in full year profits and warned that the UK advertising market looks set to remain challenging.
A speedy and successful integration of Mowlem helped support services and construction firm Carillion post record profit figures for 2007.
Online poker group PartyGaming has lifted full year earnings from continuing operations by 119%, but announced that Canadian boss Mitch Garber intends to leave the firm on 1 May next year.
Engineer IMI reported a 8% rise in full year pre-tax profits and said trading in the first two months of this year has been encouraging.
The rate at which new accounts are being opened continues to accelerate at spread betting firm IG Index, one of today's strongest performing mid-caps, while increased equity market volatility is proving good for business.
Global Radio's has been given an extension, until 26 March 2008, to make a formal offer for GCap Media, or announce its intention not to proceed with an offer, by the Takeover Panel.
More borrowers and a sharply lower bad debt charge helped sub-prime loan provider International Personal Finance beat forecasts last year, with the group confident of further progress.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Liberty International (LII) 1,030.00p +9.23%
Prudential (PRU) 643.50p +6.80%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 544.00p +6.04%
Pearson (PSON) 687.50p +5.85%
British Airways (BAY) 265.00p +5.79%
Capita Group (CPI) 700.00p +5.74%
HBOS (HBOS) 574.50p +5.70%
Man Group (EMG) 566.00p +5.70%
Hammerson (HMSO) 1,134.00p +5.68%
British Land (BLND) 988.00p +5.56%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 355.00p -3.34%
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British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,848.00p -3.04%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 428.25p -2.73%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,065.00p -2.56%
Barclays (BARC) 447.50p -2.03%
British Energy Group (BGY) 547.00p -1.88%
Persimmon (PSN) 703.00p -0.85%
Wolseley (WOS) 606.50p -0.82%
Yell Group (YELL) 199.30p -0.72%
International Power (IPR) 361.00p -0.55%
FTSE 250 - Risers
International Personal Finance (IPF) 230.00p +14.00%
IMI (IMI) 429.50p +10.13%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 381.75p +10.01%
Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 522.50p +6.85%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 605.00p +6.51%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 457.75p +6.45%
Speedy Hire (SDY) 845.00p +6.29%
Derwent London (DLN) 1,514.00p +6.02%
Hunting (HTG) 838.50p +5.94%
International Ferro Metals (IFL) 140.00p +5.86%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
EMAP (EMA) 466.25p -49.73%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 25.00p -9.09%
DS Smith (SMDS) 159.50p -3.63%
Investec (INVP) 339.25p -3.28%
Meggitt (MGGT) 285.50p -3.14%
Johnston Press (JPR) 182.75p -2.92%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 525.50p -2.78%
Greggs (GRG) 4,230.00p -2.51%
Imperial Energy Corporation (IEC) 1,419.00p -1.80%
Talvivaara Mining (TALV) 360.25p -1.71%
