Miners Rally in UK Trading; LSE Surges

Mayank Mehta
16 Sep, 2009
New York City

UK stocks gain for the fourth days in a row as commodities rise and US markets closed higher. Tullow Oil advanced after the company and its partners discover a natural gas field off the coast of Sierra Leone. Miners rally on higher copper and god prices.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks gain for the fourth days in a row as commodities rise and US markets closed higher. Tullow Oil advanced after the company and its partners discover a natural gas field off the coast of Sierra Leone. Miners rally on higher copper and god prices.[/R]

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 82.34 or 1.6% to 5,124.47 and the pound gained to $1.64 and 1.12 euros.

Gainers & Losers

Ambrian Capital plc fell 1.6% to 30.50 pence after the payment service provider said first-half revenues rose 83.9% to £9.91 million from £5.39 million a year ago. Net profit for the first-half was £1.5 million or 1.60 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £1.9 million or 1.94 pence a year ago.

Cape plc added 8.0% to 224.75 pence after the manufacturer of insulation products said first-half revenues rose 12% to £331.6 million from £295.9 million a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 44.7% to £19.1 million or 16.3 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £13.2 million or 11.5 pence a year ago.

Chemring Group plc rose 0.7% to 2,340.00 pence after the military decoy expert said that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire Hi-Shear Technology Corporation for a cash consideration of $19.18 per share or $132 million (£80 million).

De La Rue plc added 1.5% to 916.50 pence after the specialist printer said that for fiscal 2010, the company board expectations for the results remain unchanged. Reuters survey of analysts expected the company to report revenue of £528 million, net profit of £72 million for fiscal 2010.

London Stock Exchange Group Plc increased 3.0% to 833 pence after it turned to the Indian subcontinent to help reduce its huge technology costs. LSE acquired Sri Lanka based MillenniumIT for $30 million (£18 million) that the exchange hopes will help it fend off nimbler rivals.

LSE plans to pay 73% in cash and the rest in 600,000 newly issued stocks. The company spokesperson confirmed that the new trading platform will help LSE to lower trading speed from 2.7 milliseconds to below one millisecond as it replaces its TradeElect, Infolect and other trading platforms.

MillenniumIT chief Tony Weerasinghe will report directly to London Stock Exchange chief Xavier Rolet. LSE hopes to save £10 million a year through the acquisition. Borse Dubai and Qatar Investment Authority control 35% of LSE and only ten years ago Dubai stock exchange will not entertain hiring MillenniumIT to modernize their operations.



Lloyds Banking Group plc added 3.3% to 108.20 pence despite the reports that EU regulators may ask bank to sell more assets or branch network.

Max Petroleum Plc advanced 7.3% to 22.00 pence an oil and gas exploration and development company said full-year revenues rose 43% to $39.2 million from $27.5 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was $12.3 million or 3.5 cents per diluted share compared to net loss of $34.5 million or 10.7 cents a year ago.

Netcall PLC plunged 10.2% to 21.58 pence after the provider of software solutions to the contact centre market said full-year revenues rose 9% to £3.93 million from £3.60 million a year ago. Net profit for the full-year fell 29.4% to £755,000 or 1.17 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £1.07 million or 1.61 pence a year ago.

Next plc increased 4.3% to 1,773.00 pence after the fashion retailer said first-half revenues rose 0.7% to £1.51 billion from £1.50 billion a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 7% to £137.1 million or 67.6 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £123.2 million or 63.3 pence a year ago.

Northgate plc the van hire group increased 4.5% to 28.50 pence.

The ReThink Group plc surged 12.3% to 10.67 pence after the recruitment and technology services group said fiscal 2009 pre-tax profits to be ahead of 2008 profits. The Company reported pre-tax profit of £0.60 million in fiscal 2008. Analysts were expecting the company to report pre-tax profit of £1.4 million for fiscal 2009.

Smith & Nephew plc rose 1.3% to 560.00 pence after the knee and hip joint supplier launched two new products.

SnackTime Plc increased 5.3% to 125.40 pence after the vending machine operator said to acquire MBM Business Systems Limited which owns the trademarks and assets to Snack in The Box and operates the SITB franchise network.

Synergy Health plc rose 2.1% to 598.50 pence.

Tenon Group PLC rose 2.8% to 54.50 pence after the business advisory firm said full-year revenues fell 6% to £150.8 million from £160.3 million a year ago. Net profit for the full-year fell 5.7% to £8.2 million or 4.21 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £8.7 million or 4.48 pence a year ago.

Tullow Oil plc the oil firm climbed 7.1% to 1,165.00 pence after it in a consortium with Repsol and Anadarko Petroleum struck a large natural gas field off the coast of Sierra Leone.

UK Coal plc fell 7.2% to 111.50 pence after the miner unveiled details of a £100 million fundraising that reduce debt and put it in a position to finance a major investment program.

Vitesse Media Plc the publishing and events firm closed unchanged at 13.50 pence.

The Weir Group PLC fell 2.0% to 684.50 pence after the engineering group said that Mark Selway has confirmed that he intends to step down as Chief Executive Officer on November 2, 2009 and leave the Group on December 31, 2009.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 92 increased, 9 declined and 1 were unchanged.

Balfour Beatty Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 1.99% followed by losses in Smiths Group Plc of 1.99%, in Cadbury Plc of 0.88%, in Tesco Plc of 0.64%, in Scottish and Southern Energy Plc of 0.51%.

Tullow Oil Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 9.20% followed by increase in Next Plc of 6.83%, in London Stock Exchange Group Plc of 6.50%, in Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Plc of 6.45%, in Icap Plc of 6.13%.