UK Banks, Miners in Retreat; Shanks Surges

Mayank Mehta
07 Dec, 2009
New York City

UK stocks wavered as the commodities declined and the dollar was on the rise in European trading. Shanks Group surges after Carlyle Group makes an unsolicited offer. Banks retreated after Chancellor of Exchequer Darling said that he will tax excessive bonuses at banks.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks wavered as the commodities declined and the dollar was on the rise in European trading. Shanks Group surges after Carlyle Group makes an unsolicited offer. Banks retreated after Chancellor of Exchequer Darling said that he will tax excessive bonuses at banks where the government has large stakes.[/R]


UK stocks wavered on weak commodities prices and Chancellor of Exchequer Alistair Darling said that he may impose additional tax on excessive bonus issued at Royal Bank of Scotland. The final bonus document is still not sent to the government for its approval.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 9.98 or 0.1% to 5,312.38 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.636 and at €1.105.

The rise in dollar lowered crude oil and metals prices. Crude oil closed down below $75 a barrel and gold, copper and silver near 1%.

Gainers & Losers

BHP Billiton plc declined 0.6% to 1,877.50 pence after the company and Rio Tinto today signed binding agreements on the proposed production joint venture covering both companies'' Western Australia iron ore assets.

Cadbury plc fell 0.6% to 790.00 pence and investors speculate a higher offer from Kraft or other food makers.

Carillion plc rose 0.4% to 296.20 pence after the support services and construction firm sold a proportion of its equity investments in two public private partnership projects, Allenby Connaught and the New Accommodation Project, Cheltenham, to Innisfree for a total cash of £86.9 million.

The City of London Investment Trust plc the emerging markets asset management group fell 0.6% to 241.40 pence.

Great Portland Estates plc rose 0.2% to 287.60 pence and the property company to sell to local authority 18/19 Hanover Square, W1 via a compulsory purchase order under the Crossrail Act 2008 to enable the development of the Bond Street Crossrail station.

Greene King plc rose 0.8% to 433.60 pence and the brewing and pub group today announced the retirement of David Elliott as Managing Director of Pub Partners, its tenanted pub division replaced by Simon Longbottom.

IS Pharma plc decreased 1.6% to 87.00 pence an international specialty pharmaceutical firm said first-half revenues rose 1.7% to £5.9 million from £5.8 million a year ago. Net profit for the first-half fell 80% to £366,000 or 1.2 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £1.84 million or 6.5 pence per share a year ago.

Petroceltic International plc increased 8.9% to 15.25 pence after the oil and gas company focused on North Africa and the Mediterranean, in association with its partner Sonatrach, the Algerian National Oil & Gas company announced that the test well in Algeria, resulted in gas flow rates in line with expectations, of 4.9 mmscf/d.

Renishaw plc the engineer dropped 0.09% to 565.50 pence.

Rotala plc the transport group fell 6.0% to 47.00 pence.

Rolls-Royce Group plc decreased 0.6% to 496.80 pence.

Shanks Group plc surged 40.9% to 127.00 pence after the waste management firm said that it has received a preliminary and unsolicited approach from a private equity group regarding a potential cash offer of 135p per share. The U.S. based Carlyle Group offered £535 million.

Thomas Cook increased 1.9% to 221.2 pence and TUI Travel added 1.5% to 250.5 pence.

VT Group plc fell 0.2% to 553.50 pence after the support services company and working with the London Borough of Greenwich Council, has completed initial phase of the Borough’s Building Schools.

Wichford PLC added 0.7% to 9.87 pence after the property investment company said full-year revenues rose 6.7% to £44.8 million from £42.0 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £75.4 million or 50.99 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £80.7 million or 130.4 pence per share a year ago.