UK Home Prices, Retail Sales Fall; Wolseley Revenue Up 5%

Arthi Gupta
06 Dec, 2011
New York City

UK indexes traded flat and investors were cautious ahead of the 2-day summit in Europe. Home prices, retail sales and car registrations in the UK declined. BP accused Halliburton of destroying unfavorable results from tests on cement used to plug the well in the Gulf of Mexico.

[R]2:30 PM London – UK indexes traded flat and investors were cautious ahead of the 2-day summit in Europe. Home prices, retail sales and car registrations in the UK declined. BP accused Halliburton of destroying unfavorable results from tests on cement used to plug the well in the Gulf of Mexico.[/R]

UK indexes slid after Standard & Poor''s on Monday placed its long-term sovereign ratings on 15 euro-zone nations on credit watch with negative implications.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday announced the disbursement of about €2.2 billion to Greece following the completion of the fifth review of the country''s economic performance.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a meeting yesterday proposed a stricter treaty that envisages tighter fiscal discipline among euro-zone members.

In London, FTSE 100 Index dropped 1.91 or 0.01% to 5,566.25 and the pound edged higher to $1.5637.

UK Home Prices, Car Registrations Drop

Home prices in the UK declined in November, survey data released by the Lloyds Banking Group''s Halifax division showed today.

The home price index dropped 0.9% in November compared to 1.2% increase in October and the fifth monthly decline in the year and the largest drop since August.

From a year ago, home prices fell 1% in November, following a 1.8% drop in October.

Separately, new car registrations in the United Kingdom decreased from last year in November, data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders showed.

New car registrations dropped 4.2% from a year ago to 134,027 units in November.

A total of 1.923 million new cars are expected to be registered in 2011, the agency said.

UK Retail Sales Fall

Retail sales in the UK declined more than estimated in November, the latest report from the British Retail Consortium showed.

Retail sales declined 1.6% on a comparable basis from November 2010. However, on a total basis, sales rose 0.7%.

Gainers & Losers

BP Plc dipped 0.1% to 466 pence after the oil and gas explorer accused the U.S.-based oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. of intentionally destroying unfavorable results from tests on cement used to plug the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico last year.

The well had blown out in April 2010, killing 11 people and unleashing a huge oil spill that costs the company more than $40 billion.

easyJet Plc fell 1.5% to 380.60 pence after the low-cost airline said that total number of earned seats flown and capacity utilization increased for November.

Load factor, a capacity utilization measure, increased 2.6 percentage points in November to 88.3% from 85.7% last year.

Total passengers rose 3.4% to 3.82 million in November from 3.69 million in the prior year.

Wolseley Plc soared 3.7% to 1,974 pence after the plumbing and heating products distributor reported first quarter revenue increased 5% to £3.641 billion from £3.471 billion in the prior-year period. Comparable revenue in the quarter increased 5%.

Xstrata plc rose 0.2% to 1.034.50 pence after the diversified mining company said it has targeted raising copper-equivalent volumes by 50% by year-end 2014. The company also plans to lower ""structural"" costs by 20%.

Zoo Digital Group Plc plunged 40.4% to 15.50 pence after the provider of workflow management software reported first-half revenue fell 27% to $5.88 million from $8.06 million in the prior-year. Net loss for the period was $1.30 million or 5.19 cents per share compared to profit of $388,000 or 1.16 cents per share last year.