UK Home Prices Rise; Connaught Plunges 11%

Mayank Mehta
29 Jan, 2010
New York City

UK home prices in January edged up 1.2% and are now only 12% lower than their peak in October 2007. Consumer confidence index edged higher in January after dropping for three months in a row. Connaught Plc plunged 11% after its chief executive stepped down.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK home prices in January edged up 1.2% and are now only 12% lower than their peak in October 2007. Consumer confidence index edged higher in January after dropping for three months in a row. Connaught Plc plunged 11% after its chief executive stepped down.[/R]

Stocks in London and Europe edged higher at close. Miners and banks led the gainers.

UK home prices 1.2% in January from the previous month to 163,481. Home prices are now up 8.6% from a year ago and only 12% lower than their peak in 2007, according to the Nationwide Building Society.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 42.78 or 0.83% to 5,188.52 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.604 and to €1.153.

Gainers & Losers

AMEC plc rose 0.7% to 742.50 pence after the engineering and project management firm said it bought cost and commercial management consultancy Currie & Brown (Australia) Pty Ltd from its shareholders Currie & Brown International Ltd and other owner-managers for A$36.4 million in cash.

BP PLC added 0.2% to 588.50 pence and the oil company announced today that it has appointed Paul Anderson as a non-executive director of the company from February 1. Anderson is a non-executive director of BAE Systems plc and of Spectra Energy Corp.

Carillion plc closed unchanged at 298.20 pence and the company has been appointed as the preferred bidder for the £370 million Wolverhampton Building Schools program.

Connaught plc dropped 7.9% to 331.40 pence and the provider of integrated asset services to the public and private sectors announced the resignation of its CEO Mark Davies.

Dana Petroleum plc slipped 1.1% to 1,065.00 pence after the company forecasted 2010 average between 37,000 and 41,000 boepd, assuming a continuation of 2009 UK gas market dynamics.

Debenhams plc fell 1.7% to 66.50 pence.

easyJet plc an airline carrier rose 0.2% to 390.10 pence.

F&C Asset Management plc dropped 1.0% to 69.50 pence.

Investec plc rose 0.7% to 421.80 pence after the South Africa-focused bank reported a 1% rise in nine-month net operating income on Friday and said it remained uncertain about the pace of an economic recovery.

KCOM Group PLC fell 0.9% to 53.00 pence and the telecom group announced that it has signed a five year contract with the retailer Phones4U. Company will consolidate all the group''s telecoms services from multiple suppliers into a single source.

Marston’s PLC the pubs operator decreased 0.5% to 89.55 pence.

MITIE Group PLC climbed 0.4% to 227.00 pence after the support services and asset management firm in its interim management statement for the period from October 1 to date, said that group earnings continue to grow in line with its expectations and the board remains confident that full-year profit will meet management expectations.

Safestore Holdings plc closed unchanged at 138.00 pence after the self storage company said full-year revenues rose 1.8% to £84.4 million from £82.9 million a year ago. Net loss for the full-year was £0.26 million or 0.14 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £12.5 million or 6.68 pence per share a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 74 increased, 27 declined and 1 were unchanged.

ICAP Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 2.75% followed by losses in TUI Travel Plc of 1.81%, in Prudential Public Limited Company of 1.70%, in British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc of 1.20%, and in Segro Plc of 1.10%.

Whitbread Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 3.30% followed by increase in AMEC Plc of 2.85%, in Xstrata Plc of 2.69%, in HSBC Holdings Plc of 2.62%, and in Aggreko Plc of 2.26%.