UK Retail Sales Rebound 0.2%; Irish Trade Surplus Improves

Arthi Gupta
21 Apr, 2011
New York City

The UK indexes were flat after retail sales rebounded and mortgage approvals climbed in March. UK public sector borrowing declined. Irish trade surplus improved in February. William Hill surged 7% on revenue growth.

[R]3:00 PM London – The UK indexes were flat after retail sales rebounded and mortgage approvals climbed in March. UK public sector borrowing declined. Irish trade surplus improved in February. William Hill surged 7% on revenue growth.[/R]

In London, FTSE 100 Index gained 1.89 or 0.03% to 6,024.15 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.6553.

UK Mortgage Approvals Climb

The UK gross mortgage approvals for home purchase rose slightly during three months to March, but it remained subdued, the latest quarterly Trends in Lending report from the Bank of England showed on Thursday.

The number of loans approved for home purchases increased to 44,000 in March from 43,000 in February. The latest data was also smaller than 51,000 loans granted in March 2010. Gross lending decreased to £9 billion from £9.2 billion in February.

UK Retail Sales Rebound

The volume of retail sales in the United Kingdom rebounded unexpectedly in March on strong food retailing.

Retail sales, including automotive fuel, grew 0.2% on a monthly basis in March in contrast to a 0.9% fall in February, data from the Office for National Statistics showed today.

Food stores sales rose 0.7% in March from the previous month, while non-food store sales dropped 0.3%.

On a yearly basis, all retailing including automotive fuel grew at a pace of 1.3% in March, faster than the 1.1% growth in February.

UK Public Sector Borrowing Declines

The UK public sector net borrowing excluding the temporary effects of financial interventions for March declined to £18.6 billion from £19.8 billion in the same month last year, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Irish Trade Surplus Improves

Ireland''s seasonally adjusted trade surplus rose to €3.83 billion in February from January''s €2.88 billion, data released by the Central Statistics Office showed today.

Exports increased 11% to €8.09 billion in February from €7.30 billion in January. Imports dropped 3% to €4.26 billion in February from €4.42 billion in January.

BP Sues Transocean and Cameron

BP plc sued Transocean Ltd. and Cameron International Corp. for at least $40 billion in damages and other costs in separate filings in the U.S. District Court in New Orleans.

The lawsuit alleges that they were responsible for the blowout at the Macondo well due to the failure of every single safety system at the rig, including the failure of the blowout preventer due to a faulty design.

Transocean is the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig and Cameron is the maker of the blowout preventer that failed.

Gainers & Losers

African Barrick Gold plc gained 2.60% to 553.00 pence after the London-based gold miner said first quarter revenue increased 20% to $266.63 million from $221.62 million in the year-ago period. Net profit in the quarter declined 5.1% to $50.36 million or 12.3 cents per share compared to $53.05 million or 12.9 cents per share in the prior year.

Anglo American plc edged higher 0.14% to 3,179.50 pence after the miner reported declines in copper and iron ore production in the first quarter, on inclement weather and lower ore grades, but reported double-digit output increases for refined platinum and nickel.

Beazley Plc fell 2.33% to 130.00 pence after the insurer said gross premiums written for the three months ended March 31 declined 3% to $426 million from $438 million last year.

Park Plaza Hotels Ltd. rose 0.65% to 155.00 pence after the closed-ended investment company reported fiscal year 2010 revenue surged 74.1% to €139.8 million from €80.3 million a year ago.

Profit before tax was €60.5 million compared to the prior year loss of €7.2 million on the back of gains from applying IFRS accounting and also from achieving full control of previously jointly-owned hotels.

Persimmon Plc increased 1.10% to 469.70 pence after the homebuilder said for the period from January 1 to April 21, total value of new sales reservations increased about 12% from the same period last year.

Sports Direct International plc climbed 0.05% to 199.00 pence after the sports retailer reported that its group total sales for the nine weeks ending March 27 increased 10.3% to 236 million pounds from 214 million pounds; and gross profit up by 7.3% to 88 million pounds from 82 million pounds last year.

William Hill Plc surged 7.10% to 212.60 pence after the betting and gaming company stated first quarter Group net revenue grew 11% and retail net revenue increased 8%. Online net revenue grew 26%.

For the first quarter, Group operating profit advanced 21%.