UK Rates on Hold; JJB Sports Investigated

Mayank Mehta
10 Sep, 2009
New York City

The Bank of England left its asset purchase program in place to aid the economic recovery and left its interest rate unchanged at 0.5%. JJB Sports and Sports Direct ar investigated by the fraud and competition authorities.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – The Bank of England left its asset purchase program in place to aid the economic recovery and left its interest rate unchanged at 0.5%. JJB Sports and Sports Direct ar investigated by the fraud and competition authorities.[/R]

The Bank of England left its asset purchase plans in place and said it plans to buy £175 billion to sustain the economic recovery. The Monetary Policy Committee also left its key lending rate unchanged.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 37.84 or 0.7% to 4,966.46 and the pound gained to close at $1.66 and 1.14 euros.

Gainers & Losers

Alumasc Group plc decreased 9.1% to 104.00 pence after the building and engineering products company said full-year revenues fell 13.3% to £109.1 million from £125.8 million a year ago. Pre-tax profit for the full-year fell 82% to £1.8 million compared to net profit of £10 million a year ago.

Armour Group PLC surged 19.6% to 15.25 pence after the consumer electronics group said that for fiscal 2009 it expects profits before interest and tax and underlying basic earnings per share to be ahead of current market expectations.

Beale PLC fell 0.4% to 36.85 pence after the department store said 43-week sales were 3.3% lower on the year but margins have improved and it expects a boost to trading from a new brand.

Carpetright plc the carpet retailer decreased 1.8% to 930.00 pence.

Galliford Try plc declined 6.4% to 65.25 pence after the house builder said full-year revenues fell 20% to £1.46 billion from £1.83 billion a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £17.8 million or 4.8 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £42.5 million or 11.4 pence per share a year ago.

Genus plc added 3.4% to 625.50 pence an animal genetics group said full-year revenues rose 13.5% to £280.4 million from £247.1 million a year ago. Net profit for the full-year rose 1% to £17.9 million or 29.9 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £17.7 million or 30.2 pence per share a year ago.

Hilton Food Group Plc advanced 1.3% to 195.00 pence after the meat packaging firm said first-half revenues rose 13% to £427.2 million from £378.5 million a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 12% to £7.4 million or 10.6 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £6.6 million or 9.5 pence per share a year ago.

Home Retail Group plc edged lower 6.1% to 309.60 pence after the home improvement and general merchandise chain that “we now expect group benchmark profit before tax for the first half to be broadly in line with last year’s £121 million.” The second quarter total sales at Argos rose 2.5% to £951 million and like-for-like sales were down by 1.4%. Homebase sales rose 2.9% at £401 million and like-for-like sales rose by 1.6%.

JJB Sports plc fell 7.1% to 36.00 pence and Sports Direct plunged 16.3% to 108.9 pence after the company said it is under investigation for alleged price fixing.

Kesa Electricals plc fell 4.9% to 144.10 pence after the electricals retailer said group revenues increased 5.8% in the pound but decreased 0.2% in local currency.

Redrow plc fell 4.8% to 233.90 pence after the house builder said full-year revenues fell 53.6% to £301.8 million from £650.1 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £100.4 million or 62.8 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £139.9 million or 87.5 pence per share a year ago.

Redstone plc the shares in IT and telecoms company climbed 20.3% to 5.26 pence.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC dropped 2.5% to 277.30 pence after the supermarket chain operator said first-half revenues rose 5% to £7.5 billion from £7.1 billion a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 42% to £309 million or 11.76 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £218 million or 8.09 pence per share a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 48 increased, 52 declined and 2 were unchanged.

Hotel Retail Group Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 6.73% followed by losses in Next Plc of 4.12%, in Kingfisher Plc of 3.98%, in Antofagasta Plc of 3.23%, in ICAP Plc of 3.16%.

Thomas Cook Group Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 4.61% followed by increase in TUI Travel Plc of 4.17%, in Cairn Energy Plc of 3.28%, in Autonomy Corporation Plc of 2.58%, in Smith Group Plc of 2.28%.