UK PPI Rises; Dragon Oil REjects ENOC Bid

Mayank Mehta
11 Dec, 2009
New York City

UK stocks wavered but closed higher. The producer price index increased 2.9% in November. Carillion gained 2% after it estimated sales increase of 10%. Resource stocks generally traded higher after China reported a surge in industrial activities.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks wavered but closed higher. The producer price index increased 2.9% in November. Carillion gained 2% after it estimated sales increase of 10%. Resource stocks generally traded higher after China reported a surge in industrial activities.[/R]

UK producer prices gained 2.9% in November on a rise in energy costs. The factory gate price increase was the fastest in nine months and sparked worries that inflation pressures are building up.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 29.32 or 0.5% to 5,273.69 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.624 and higher to close at €1.108.

Dragon Oil Plc shareholders rejected the acquisition proposal from Emirates National Oil Co.

Gainers & Losers

Anglo American plc advanced 2.1% to 2,576.00 pence after the mining company appointed to its board of Ray O’Rourke as a non-executive director, with immediate effect.

Bango PLC fell 6.8% to 44.25 pence after the mobile payments group said that it has raised £3.2 million through the sale of 7,488,372 ordinary shares at 43 pence per share.

Carillion plc added 1.3% to 299.20 after the company said it expects sales to increase at least 10% in the year on “very good” sales in the Middle East.

Candover Investments plc closed unchanged at 478.00 pence after the struggling private equity group said that its wholly owned subsidiary, Candover Partners Limited, and Cinven have agreed to the sale of Springer Science+Business Media to European fund EQT V and Singapore based sovereign fund for £11.4 million including carried interest for company’s Investments.

Dialight plc rose 8.9% to 220.00 pence and the company said that it will supply 20,000 of its state-of-the-art, central light source LED traffic signals to the Turkey based customers.

Dragon Oil Plc decreased 3.4% to 379.75 pence after shareholders rejected the offer to be acquired by Emirates National Oil Co.

HMV Group plc decreased 0.8% to 105.70 pence after the retailer of music, DVD, games and books said first-half sales rose 5.6% to £797 million from £754.5 million a year ago. Net loss for the first-half was £17.8 million or 4.2 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £19.8 million or 4.8 pence per share a year ago.

HSBC Infrastructure Company Limited rose 0.7% to 112.70.

John Lewis of Hungerford plc plunged 14.2% to 0.90 pence.

Mouchel Group plc the road and infrastructure support contractor surged 11.2% to 177.75 pence.

Omega Diagnostics Group PLC plunged 17.1% to 29.00 pence after the medical group said that it expects revenues for fiscal year ending March 2010 to be marginally lower than its earlier expectations on production problems.

Polar Capital Holdings plc closed unchanged at 88.50 pence.