UK Stocks Rest; Meggitt, Rolls Royce Up

Mayank Mehta
30 Oct, 2009
New York City

UK stocks closed lower as commodities traded sideways. Forth Ports offered positive outlook. Rolls-Royce Group wins $720 million order from Virgin Air. Aerospace and defense contractor Meggitt Plc reiterated its annual outlook.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks closed lower as commodities traded sideways. Forth Ports offered positive outlook. Rolls-Royce Group wins $720 million order from Virgin Air. Aerospace and defense contractor Meggitt Plc reiterated its annual outlook.[/R]

Stocks in UK closed lower as commodities traded sideways and Lloyds Banking Group prepares for its rights offering and bonds to raise at least £19 billion. WPP Group, Meggitt Plc and Forth Ports gained in trading. Virgin Air selected Rolls Royce for its new orders of A380 planes.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 14.40 or 0.28% to 5,123.32 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.645 and to close at €1.118.

Lloyds Banking Group’s offering is gathering momentum as investors prefer to give capital to the troubled bank than let the government increase its stake to 62% from 43%.

Gainers & Losers

F&C Asset Management plc increased 3.7% to 76.25 pence after the asset manager said third quarter assets under management increased 12.3% to £99.2 billion.

Ferrexpo plc added 2.8% to 153.30 pence after the iron ore producer declared an interim dividend of 3.3 cents per share for the first six months of 2009.

Forth Ports plc rose 3.0% to 1,162.00 pence after the port operator said trading overall within ports division is in line with our expectations with new business initiatives and tonnage increases, in some areas, helping to reinforce the resilience of our business in a difficult market.

International Power plc increased 2.5% to 262.60 pence after the power generator announces that, together with its partners, it has completed a A$425 million (£235 million) project refinancing for the 687km SEA Gas pipeline, which links Victoria and South Australia.

Meggitt PLC added 5.5% to 244.80 pence after the aerospace and defense systems group said that the trading in fiscal 2009 continues to be in line with the board''s expectations.

Meridian Petroleum PLC closed unchanged at 53.00 pence after the oil company announced a plan to raise £6.9 million ($11.3 million).

Planet Payment, Inc closed unchanged at 85.00 pence after the multi currency payment processor said that it has raised $4 million via a placing of 3,076,000 new common shares at a price of $1.30 per share.

Rolls-Royce Group plc rose 0.2% to 461.10 pence won an order for Trent 700 engines worth $720 million at list prices, to power ten Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 aircraft.

Steppe Cement Ltd surged 10.7% to 62.00 pence after the Kazakhstan-based cement supplier said third quarter production rose 11% to 3.08 billion ton and increased its estimate for the cement market for 2009.

WPP plc added 5.1% to 573.00 pence after the advertising giant the advertising company said third quarter reported revenues rose 16.7% to £2.01 billion from £1.72 billion a year ago and revenues, and in constant currencies, were up 6.7%. Like-for-like revenue fell 8.7%.

UK revenues rose 9.1% to £244.3 million from £224 million a year ago, and in constant currencies, rose 9.1%. Like-for-like revenue fell 9%. North America revenues rose 18% to £704.5 million from £596.9 million a year ago and in constant currencies rose 3%. Like-for-like revenue fell 6.3%.

Yell Group plc the directories group surged 13.7% to 55.90 pence.