Barclays Drops 5% in London; Pearson Up

Mayank Mehta
20 Oct, 2009
New York City

Stocks in London traded lower. Autonomy fell nearly 7% after quarterly net rose less than expected. Barclays dropped more than 5% after Qatar based investment fund took a profit of nearly $1 billion and lowered its holding in the bank to 7%. Pearson increased on earnings outlook.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – Stocks in London traded lower. Autonomy fell nearly 7% after quarterly net rose less than expected. Barclays dropped more than 5% after Qatar based investment fund took a profit of nearly $1 billion and lowered its holding in the bank to 7%. Pearson increased on earnings outlook.[/R]

UK stocks edged lower as investors digest earnings in UK, Europe and the U.S. Barclays declined after Qatar based fund took a profit on the sale of warrants it acquire at the time of a stake purchase.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 30.40 or 0.5% to 5,251.14 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.639 and edged lower to 1.096 euros.

Gainers & Losers

Autonomy Corporation plc decreased 6.6% to 1,489.00 pence after the software firm said third quarter sales rose 51% to $191.6 million from $127.1 million a year ago. Net profit for the quarter rose 10% to $36.8 million or 15 cents per diluted share compared to net profit of $33.4 million or 15 cents per share a year ago.

Balfour Beatty plc advanced 1.6% to 292.60 pence after the engineering contractor won $449 million of new contracts in the states of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and North Carolina in the U.S.

Barclays Plc declined 5.2% to 362.25 pence after Qatar based fund sold 379 million shares at 360 pence each. The company exercised to sell the warrants it acquired at the time of a stake purchase at 197.775 pence.

Boomerang Plus Plc close unchanged at 78.50 pence after the Welsh TV Group completed the acquisition of Indus Films, a Welsh-based television content developer.

Earthport plc surged 14.2% to 34.00 pence an electronic payments firm said full-year revenues fell 18% to £1.57 million from £1.92 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £7.3 million or 8.90 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £3.4 million or 5.14 pence per share a year ago.

Greggs plc the bakery chain slipped 5.8% to 438.00 pence.

Global Petroleum Limited the oil explorer rose 6.3% to 8.51 pence.

Hargreaves Lansdown PLC the assets managed by private client stockbroker and fund manager decreased 0.5% to 295.50 pence.

Hampson Industries PLC rose 5.1% to 81.00 pence after the aerospace and engineering group said on Tuesday its aerospace tooling division received a new contract worth $28 million for the design and manufacture of precision tools for composite airframe structures.

Homeserve plc fell 0.5% to 1,710.00 pence after the provision of insured repair solutions and emergency services to the home said is to shut its two property repair businesses as challenging marketing conditions continue to take their toll.

Inchcape plc increased 7.2% to 35.25 pence after the car dealer said that for fiscal 2009, it expects financial performance to be significantly ahead of previous expectations.

Lloyds Banking Group plc increased 0.6% to 92.55 pence after the financial services group said British wealth manager Rathbone Brothers said it will acquire assets from bank and enter a deal to manage money for the bank''s private clients.

PartyGaming Plc dropped 14% to 245.90 after the founder Anurag Dikshit lowered his stake in the online gambling company to one third and sold 75 million shares at 250 pence each.

Pearson plc added 2.8% to 845.00 pence after the education group lifted fiscal 2009 earnings per share expectations to be at or above 60 pence. Sales in the nine-months increased 20%.

Rathbone Brothers plc the provider of investment and wealth management services rose 0.4% to 959.00 pence.

Sterling Energy plc rose 5.1% to 5.10 pence after the oil and gas exploration company agreed to sell its U.S. assets for at least $90 million and additional amount depending on the future oil and gas prices.

Xstrata plc fell 0.5% to 1,021.00 pence after the Swiss mining company’s joint venture partner in South Africa based Merafe Resources sales fell 47% for the nine months ending in September.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 39 increased, 61 declined and 2 were unchanged.

Autonomy Corporation Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 8.03% followed by losses in Barclays Plc of 4.65%, in Wolseley Plc of 3.28%, in Cairn Energy Plc of 2.74%, in Burberry Group Plc of 2.52%.

J Sainsbury Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 5.27% followed by increase in Pearson Plc of 4.62%, in Man Group Plc of 2.14%, in British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc of 1.74%, in Smiths Group Plc of 1.67%.