UK Stocks, Pound Edge Lower

Mayank Mehta
30 Dec, 2009
New York City

UK stocks decreased following a weakness on commodities prices. The pound and the euro edged lower against the dollar. Panmure Gordon expressed positive outlook for 2010. Segro sold its stake in a joint venture with Tesco to British Land.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks decreased following a weakness on commodities prices. The pound and the euro edged lower against the dollar. Panmure Gordon expressed positive outlook for 2010. Segro sold its stake in a joint venture with Tesco to British Land.[/R]

UK stocks edged lower tracking losses in commodities markets. The dollar stayed firm against the euro and the pound.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 11.74 or 0.2% to 5,425.87 and the pound edged higher to close at $1.593 and to €1.114.

Gainers & Losers

London Stock Exchange Group Plc slipped 0.6% to 716.00 pence said a record £82.5 billion was raised through public offering of initial and secondary on the London Stock Exchange in 2009, 16% increase from a year ago.

Panmure Gordon & Co. plc added 1.3% to 38.00 pence and the brokerage firm said that though the revenues are lower the company has also cut the cost to retain the profitability. The company also indicated positive outlook for 2010 and looking to hire additional staff.

Petrofac Limited advanced 1.0% to 1,021.00 pence after the oil and gas fabrications specialist has been engaged by Turkmengas controlled by Turkmenistan, to develop the South Yoloten gas field, situated approximately 400 km south east of the capital Ashgabat. The first phase of the contract of $100 million, will involve completing front end engineering and design study for the project.

Segro plc rose 0.2% to 344.50 pence after the industrial property group said it has sold its 50% stake in its shopping centre joint venture with Tesco to British Land for £26.9 million, the holdings in the two shopping centres located at Surrey Quays in Rotherhithe and Clifton Moor in York.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 21 increased, 74 declined and 7 were unchanged.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 3.20% followed by losses in Johnson Matthey Plc of 2.19%, in Standard Chartered Plc of 2.08%, in Randgold Resources Ltd. of 1.93%, and in Liberty International Plc of 1.86%.

Petrofac Limited led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 1.88% followed by increase in Cairn Energy Plc of 0.58%, in The British Land Company Plc of 0.56%, in 3i Group Plc of 0.54%, and in Centrica Plc of 0.53%.