Allied Irish Surges; Balfour Beatty Acquisition

123jump.com Staff
17 Sep, 2009
New York City

UK stocks closed at a new high after gaining for the fifth day in a row. Retail sales were flat in August after rising for two months in a row. Balfour Beatty plans to raise

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks closed at a new high after gaining for the fifth day in a row. Retail sales were flat in August after rising for two months in a row. Balfour Beatty plans to raise £350 million to pay for an acquisition. Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland surge after Irish government acquires bad loans from banks.[/R]

UK stocks closed up for the fifth day in a row and to a new high for the year. UK retail sales were unchanged in August from July when they increased revised 0.2% according to the Office of National Statistics.

Food retail sales increased 0.7% in the month and non-food sales decreased 0.6%.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 33.99 or 0.6% to 5,158.87 and the pound gained to $1.65 and closed unchanged at 1.12 euros.

Gainers & Losers

Accident Exchange Group Plc plunged 10.7% to 14.95 pence.

Allied Irish soared 33% to 3.50 euros and Bank of Ireland increased 19% to 3.40 euros after National Asset Management Agency agreed to acquire bad loans worth 40 billion euros. The government agency will purchase soured loans to free banks to raise capital and keep the healthy business profitable. Allied Irish will raise 2 billion euros as required by the central bank of Ireland.

Balfour Beatty plc added 1.7% to 349.90 pence after the engineering and construction contractor said is in advanced talks regarding a ""significant"" acquisition and is preparing a rights issue of £350 million to pay for the acquisition.

Blackstar Group PLC the Africa-focused investment company closed unchanged at 53.50 pence.

Booker Group plc advanced 2.5% to 40.50 pence after the cash and carry group said like-for-like sales increased 7.6% for the past three months and its group debt has fallen by almost £25 million in the past year.

British Airways soared 5.5% to 239 pence and easyJet plc increased 3.9% to 386 pence after the international airline industry association said that airlines are reporting initial signs of improvement in the first and business class sales. Separately, Goldman Sachs made positive comments on BA citing cost control and potential synergies with Spain based Iberian Air.

Centaur Media plc added 4.6% to 45.00 pence after the business-business publications publisher said full-year revenues fell 27% to £66.3 million from £90.4 million a year ago. Net profit for the full-year fell 91% to £0.9 million or 0.6 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £9.7 million or 6.7 pence per share a year ago.

Coffeeheaven International Plc fell 0.1% to 20.73 pence after the coffee shop operator said full-year revenues rose 31% to £23.3 million from £17.8 million a year ago. Pre-tax loss for the full-year was £185,000 compared to net profit of £512,000 a year ago.

ClearDebt Group Plc the debt advisory firm closed unchanged at 2.00 pence.

Emerald Energy plc rose 0.07% to 745.00 pence after the oil explorer said to proceed with Gigante No.2 crude oil well production exploration. The company is in the final stages of takeover from Sinochem Resources.

French Connection Group PLC plunged 13.0% to 50.00 pence after the fashion group said first-half revenues rose 4% to £116.9 million from £11.45 million a year ago. Pre-tax loss for the first-half was £12.8 million compared to pre-tax loss of £5.4 million a year ago.

John Lewis Partnership Plc the operator of department stores said first-half sales rose 3.5% to £3.39 billion from £3.27 billion a year ago. Net profit for the first-half fell 24% to £57 million compared to net profit of £75.1 million a year ago.

Kier Group plc declined 1.3% to 1,228.00 after the construction company said full-year revenues fell 10% to £2.1 billion from £2.4 billion a year ago. Net profit for the full-year fell 66% to £16.1 million or 44.0 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £47.2 million or 129.7 pence per share a year ago.

Kingfisher plc rose 2.1% to 210.00 pence after the home-improvement retailer said first-half revenues rose 7.3% to £5.5 billion from £5.13 billion a year ago. Net profit for the first-half rose 37% to £201 million or 8.5 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £147 million or 5.9 pence per share a year ago.

Neovia Financial Plc fell 1.7% to 55.50 pence an independent online payments business said first-half revenues fell 9% to $32.6 million from $35.9 million a year ago. Net loss for the first-half was $6.7 million or $0.06 per diluted share compared to net profit of $1.15 million or $0.01 per share a year ago.

Renovo Group plc decreased 6.2% to 26.25 pence after the scar-reduction specialist said is planning to cut its headcount by a third after it failed to merge with a prospect and will trim its operations and focus on launching new procedures and drugs.

Tullow Oil plc increased 3.6% to 1,230.00 pence after the company discovered oil in the Ngassa 2 exploration well in Uganda at 7 meter depth.

Wilmington Group plc increased 3.6% to 126.50 pence after the media and services company said full-year revenues fell 2.9% to £86.3 million from £88.8 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £311 million or 0.45 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £8.4 million or 8.76 pence per share a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 69 increased, 30 declined and 3 were unchanged.

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 2.29% followed by losses in Lonmin Plc of 2.18%, in Icap Plc of 1.77%, in The Sage Group Plc of 1.63%, in Kingfisher Plc of 1.31%.

Balfour Beatty Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 8.28% followed by increase in British Airways Plc of 5.41%, in Tullow Oil Plc of 3.88%, in Autonomy Rexam Plc of 3.22%, in Antofagasta Plc of 2.98%.