UK Retail Inflation Drops; Thomas Cook to Divest India Unit

Arthi Gupta
08 Feb, 2012
New York City

The UK indexes traded sideways and the UK shop price inflation fell but permanent job hiring rose for the first time in four months in January. Reckitt Benckiser quarterly net soared 26%. Thomas Cook planned to sell stake in India unit.

[R]4:10 PM London – The UK indexes traded sideways and the UK shop price inflation fell but permanent job hiring rose for the first time in four months in January. Reckitt Benckiser quarterly net soared 26%. Thomas Cook planned to sell stake in India unit.[/R]

The UK indexes traded sideways on the hopes that Greece and international lenders and the European Central Bank will wrap up negotiations as early as this week.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is expected to meet leaders of three parties that are supporting his interim government to finalize a draft agreement agreed with the international lenders.

In London trading FTSE 100 Index gained 4.99 or 0.1% to 5,894.99 and the pound edged higher to $1.5900.

UK Shop Price Inflation Drops

Shop price inflation in the United Kingdom declined to 1.4% in January from 1.7% in December, data from the British Retail Consortium showed today.

Food inflation declined to 3.7% in January from 4.2% in December and non-food prices stagnated in January after a 0.3% rise in December.

UK Permanent Placements Up

Permanent job placements in the United Kingdom increased for the first time in four months in January to 51.2, data from a survey by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation showed.

Gainers & Losers

BHP Billiton PLC fell 1.1% to 2,156.50 pence after the diversified natural resources company reported revenue for the half year ended December grew 9.7% to $37.48 billion from $34.166 billion in the year-ago period. Profit for the half year dropped 5.5% to $9.941 billion or $1.86 per share from $10.524 billion or $1.89 per share last year.

Escher Group Holdings plc dipped 0.6% to 176.50 pence after the provider of outsourced, point of sale software to the postal industry was awarded a significant contract to provide its Riposte suite of software, maintenance and services to a leading postal authority.

Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc soared 3.2% to 3,489 pence after the consumer goods company reported fourth quarter net revenues increased 6% to £2.42 billion from £2.28 billion in the year earlier period. Net income in the quarter grew 26% to £521 million or 70.8 pence per share.

For fiscal year 2011, adjusted profit grew 9% to £1.82 billion or 247.1 pence per share on a 12% increase in revenues to £9.49 billion.

Rio Tinto PLC gained 1.5% to 3,925.50 pence after the miner said it would invest a further $3.4 billion to expand its iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia so as to meet growing demand from Asian markets.

Thomas Cook Group plc surged 7.7% to 14 pence after the leisure travel company announced that it is launching a formal sale process for its 77.1% stake in its Indian unit.