London open: Footsie makes bright start
Footsie has pushed on in early dealings led by good demand for miners and retailers.
Rio Tinto, Kingfisher and Marks & Spencer are all going well. British Energy is the weakest performer on disappointment that French group EDF is the only party interested in making a full bid.
Centrica says first-half group operating profit will be "materially below" that of last year due to lower profitability at its British Gas business despite its upstream business booming. "At current forward wholesale gas prices operating profit in the upstream gas production business will be very strong, although this will be partially offset by the additional losses in the industrial and commercial gas sales contracts," it said.
Trading systems software group Fidessa predicts results this year will be at the upper end of market forecasts. " The year has started well with strong revenue growth and stable margins. Good progress has been made across all regions and product lines and the indications are that the structural changes in the market, which occurred in 2007, are resulting in increased fragmentation of liquidity, which is driving demand for our product set, " it said.
Care-home operator Southern Cross Healthcare lifted underlying profits by 41% to £30.8m in the six months to March, slightly better than forecasts. The number of beds rose 14% to just over 37,000 at the end of the first half.
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Scottish dairy group Robert Wiseman warned that a combination of cost and revenue pressures will "disappointingly impact profitability in the current year." Soaring energy prices, rising wage costs and delays in increasing selling prices are expected to hit profits by around �8.5m this financial year, the group said in today's company update.
Oil and gas explorer Dana Petroleum has made a discovery in Block 210/24a of the East Rinnes oil field in the North Sea. The East Rinnes discovery well, 210/24a-11z, was drilled to a total measured depth of 6,935 feet and encountered a full Brent reservoir sequence
Online gaming company 888 Holdings has teamed up with gaming software company Gaming Technology Solutions to modify its gaming platform to make it easier to launch new games. Gaming Technology Solution (GTS) and 888 have collaborated on a new multi-national gaming integration standard that will allow local developers to devise games to be incorporated into 888's product offering.
Flat speaker technolgy group NTX rallied on a deal to equip two new Toyota models.
