UK Stocks Advance; BAE Down, BA Up

Mayank Mehta
15 Feb, 2010
New York City

UK stocks closed higher and commodities declined in London trading. BAE Systems Plc declined 1% after it wrote down its Armor Holdings unit assets. British Air Plc gained after the U.S. regulators approved One World Alliance to set prices and schedule flights.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks closed higher and commodities declined in London trading. BAE Systems Plc declined 1% after it wrote down its Armor Holdings unit assets. British Air Plc gained after the U.S. regulators approved One World Alliance to set prices and schedule flights.[/R]

UK stocks closed higher and commodities prices declined in London trading. The benchmark index has declined 6.1% for the year so far.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 34.9 or 0.7% to 5,177.35 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.566 and edged higher to close at €1.152.

BAE Systems Plc decreased 1% to 340.7 pence after it took one-time charge of 529 million after it lost a U.S. Army contract to build armored trucks.

Gainers & Losers

British Airways Plc increased 3.7% to 202.8 pence after the U.S. Transportation Department approved the One World alliance that includes American Airlines to set price, schedule flights and market jointly.

Catalyst Media Group Plc soared 9.6% to 102.5 pence after the television programmer was speculated to get a bid from billionaire UK investors Simon and David Reuben according to the Sunday Times.

Emisphere Technologies, Inc the biopharmaceutical company rose 0.9% to 1.04 pence.

Fidessa Group plc rose 1.5% to 1,320 pence after the financial trading software specialist said full-year revenues rose 26% to £238.5 million from £189.1 million a year ago. Net Profit for the full-year fell 24% to £21.0 million or 58.9 pence per diluted share compared to profit of £27.7 million or 79.1 pence per share a year ago.

Falkland Oil and Gas Limited rose 0.4% to 153.50 pence after the company announce that it has reached an agreement with Desire Petroleum plc to contract the Ocean Guardian rig to drill the first ever exploration well in the East Falklands Basin on the Toroa prospect by the first half.

Griffin Mining Limited rose 0.1% to 42.80 pence after the company report increased production at its Caijiaying Zinc Gold Mine and processing facilities in the quarter to December 2009.

In the fourth quarter of 2009 125,379 tons of ore were processed compared to 114,233 tons in the third quarter to produce 7,141 tons of zinc (compared to 6,783 tons), 1,673 ounces of gold ( 1,251 ounces), 29,695 ounces of silver ( 38,019 ounces) and 138 tons of lead ( 218 tons).

ICAP plc rose 0.2% to 330.10 pence after the interdealer broker dropped nearly 9% in Friday’s trading after it lowered its earnings outlook on struggling newer businesses.

Mouchel Group Plc soared 10% to 276 pence after the Independent in Sunday edition reported that VT Group Plc may increase its offer to 300 pence per share.

Plant Health Care plc increased 5.1% to 203.00 pence after the supplier of natural products said full-year revenues rose 16.9% to £23.2 million. Pre-tax loss for the full-year was £1.3 million compared to pre-tax loss of £4.2 million a year ago.

Playtech Limited rose 1.1% to 473.00 pence after the gaming software group today announces it has acquired the business and assets of Virtue Fusion, the developer and licensor of online bingo products for £29 million or €33.4 million).

Speedy Hire Plc rose 4.7% to 27.75 pence after the January revenues were broadly in line with management expectations and were 24% below the January 2009 level (compared to year on year declines of 36% in October and 28% in December).

Trading Emission Plc fell 1.1% to 89.00 pence.

Vodafone Group Plc fell 0.1% to 138.85 pence.