UK Pound Slides; Songbird Estate Drops

Mayank Mehta
09 Oct, 2009
New York City

UK stocks closed nearly unchanged as the pound fell against the dollar and the euro. Currency analysts are predicting the pound to trade below 95 euro cents by the end of the year. The troubled retailed JJB Sports to raise

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks closed nearly unchanged as the pound fell against the dollar and the euro. Currency analysts are predicting the pound to trade below 95 euro cents by the end of the year. The troubled retailed JJB Sports to raise £100 million. Songbird Estate dropped after it received offers for only 60% of its rights offering.[/R]

Stocks in London trading closed nearly unchanged as investors awaited the beginning of the earnings season next week. Volatile commodities prices affected resource stocks and banks were in focus.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 1.16 or 0.02% to 5,153.48 and the pound declined 1% to close at $1.592 and edged lower at 1.080 euros.

For the week, the pound declined 0.2% against the dollar and 0.7% per euro. Pound is likely to drop below 94 euro cents by the end of the year as the Bank of England focus on providing economic stimulus and keep rates near zero.

Gainers & Losers

JJB Sports plc fell 4.3% to 33.00 pence after the troubled sportswear retailer said it plans to raise £100 million in a share issue, confirming a report in the Financial Times.

Robert Walters plc dropped 1.0% to 188.00 pence after the recruitment group said third quarter net fee income declined 29%.

RWS Holdings plc plunged 14.9% to 285.00 pence after the intellectual property group expects full-year underlying profits to fall below consensus, but exceed year-ago levels, on a drop in interest income on lower deposit rates.

Songbird Estates plc plunged 13.1% to 1.65 pence after the property company said Canary Wharf owner of the company has received valid acceptances representing about 59.6% of new open offer shares.

The group announced a placing and compensatory open offer, issue of preference shares and new credit facility on September 24 to raise a total of £1.03 billion.

UK Coal plc declined 2.6% to 110.00 pence said a share issue to raise gross proceeds of £106.5 million (approximately £100 million net of expenses) through the issue of 142,045,413 new shares at a price of 75 pence each.

Wood Group (John) plc decreased 0.7% to 323.70 pence after the oilfield services company said that one of the three divisions that supply support services to oil fields is at “robust performance” which make up around 55% of revenues.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 54 increased, 47 declined and 1 were unchanged.

Autonomy Corporation Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 2.37% followed by losses in Johnson Matthey Plc of 1.95%, in Tullow Oil Plc of 1.71%, in London Stock Exchange Group of 1.60%, in Vodafone Group Plc of 1.60%.

3i Group Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 4.34% followed by increase in Kingfisher Plc of 2.82%, in Unilever Plc of 2.66%, in Standard Life Plc of 2.37%, in Royal Dutch Shell Plc of 2.15%.