Market Updates

Cadbury Holders Prefer Kraft Shares; BAE Falls

Mayank Mehta
03 Feb, 2010
New York City

    UK stocks closed lower and consumer confidence revived in January. BAE Systems declined 2% after the company share losses in the joint fighter plane development program with Lockheed Martin. Autonomy Corp fourth quarter profit rises. Standard Life fourth quarter revenues increased sharply.

[R]4:00PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks closed lower and consumer confidence revived in January. BAE Systems declined 2% after the company share losses in the joint fighter plane development program with Lockheed Martin. Autonomy Corp fourth quarter profit rises. Standard Life fourth quarter revenues increased sharply. More Cadbury holders ask for Kraft shares.[/R]

UK consumer confidence increased in January according to the latest survey by Nationwide Building Society. The index increased 3 points to 73 as the economy barely emerges from its worst recession in sixty years.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 30.16 or 0.57% to 5,253.15 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.596 and edged higher to close at €1.144.

Kraft Foods Inc received more requests for its share than cash from Cadbury shareholders according to a statement released by the company. Of the 988 million Cadbury share tendered as of today, 733 million shares were in exchange of Kraft shares and 60 million for cash.

Shareholders asking for all cash will get 799 pence per share and a dividend of 10 pence and those asking for cash and stock will receive 476 pence in cash and 0.202664 Kraft shares.

Gainers & Losers

Autonomy Corporation plc added 2.8% to 1,614.00 pence after the software infrastructure developer reported fourth quarter net profit of $69.39 million or 29 cents per share compared to $51.39 million or 24 cents per share in the year ago.

BAE Systems Plc decreased 2% to 340.3 pence after its U.S. partner Lockheed Martin said that the company will share in fees or losses related to F-35 Joint Strike Fighter development. The losses among all partners including the companies and Northrop Grumman are estimated to be as high as $614 million.

Carpetright plc dropped 3.1% to 941.00 pence after the retailer of carpets in its trading update for the 13 weeks ended January 2010 said group sales rose 7%.

Chloride Group PLC rose 0.05% to 186.80 pence after the power solutions provider said third quarter trading is in line with expectations.

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation PLC fell 0.1% to 975.50 pence after the mining giant said group production volumes overall for the quarter ended December 2009 further improved on the levels of third quarter 2009, in line with management expectations stated in November.

Lamprell plc rose 1.3% to 193.10 pence after the engineering contractor focused on the oil and gas industry announces $51 million of new contract awards.

PartyGaming plc increased 4.6% to 298.10 pence and the online gambling sites operator said fourth quarter revenues increased 32% to $132.2 million from $100.4 million a year ago.

Pearson plc fell 0.7% to 887.00 pence after the educational and financial information publisher expects adjusted earnings per share of around 10% compared to 57.7 pence in 2008, ahead of the previous guidance and the current consensus of market expectations.

Scottish and Southern Energy plc fell 0.6% to 1,182.00 pence after the power supplier expects to deliver a full-year dividend of at least 70 pence per share in the current fiscal year compared with 66 pence in the previous year.

Standard Life Plc climbed 3.7% to 205.10 pence after the life assurance firm reported life and pensions net inflows excluding bulk bond deals 57% higher at £3.2 billion from £2.1 billion a year ago. Full year revenues declined less than expected.

Revenues in the quarter to December increased 38% to 2.8 billion and in the full year declined 6.4% to 14.7 billion. Revenues in Asia increased 30% and in Canada gained 16% from a year ago.

Workspace Group Plc increased 3.4% to 22.75 pence after the small business office landlord said like-for-like occupancy increased to 84.2% up 1.3 percentage points from the lowest level reached in March 2009.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 22 increased, 79 declined and 1 were unchanged.

AstraZeneca Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 3.74% followed by losses in Lonmin Plc of 3.25%, in Xstrata Plc of 3.19%, in Antofagasta Plc of 3.01%, and in Fresnillo Plc of 2.83%.

Standard Life Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 3.34% followed by increase in WPP Plc of 2.31%, in Prudential Plc of 2.28%, in Barclays Plc of 1.85%, and in Inmarsat Plc of 1.77%.

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