Banks in London Up on Lloyds; CPP IPO

Mayank Mehta
19 Mar, 2010
New York City

UK stocks edged up after Lloyds indicated return to profitability this year on lower loan loss charges. CPP Group surged 11% on its first day of trading. African Barrick Gold closed near its spin off price.

[R]4:00 PM London, 11:00 AM New York – UK stocks edged up after Lloyds indicated return to profitability this year on lower loan loss charges. CPP Group surged 11% on its first day of trading. African Barrick Gold closed near its spin off price.[/R]

UK stocks closed higher after Lloyds Banking Group Plc increased forecasted return to profit this year. RBS, Barclays and HSBC edged up on the estimate.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 7.54 or 0.13% to 5,650.16 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.514 and edged lower to close at €1.118.

Lloyds forecasted lower loan losses in individual and corporate loan portfolios and the lender had forecasted earlier loan losses of £15 billion.

African Barrick Gold closed down 0.5 pence from the initial public offering price to 574.4 pence a share after the company was spun off from Toronto based Barric Gold Corp.

CPP Group Plc soared 11% to 259.75 pence from the initial offer price of 235 pence after it raised £30 million to lower its debt.

Gainers & Losers

British Airways Plc rose 0.9% to 244.70 pence and the airline plans to increase its flying schedule for the period of cabin crew strike.

Gulfsands Petroleum plc dropped 3.0% to 303.00 pence after the Syria-focused oil explorer rejected a preliminary takeover approach received on March 18.

Headlam Group plc closed unchanged at 273.75 pence after the flooring specialist said 2009 revenues rose 0.7% to £1.35 billion to £1.34 billion a year ago. Net profit for the year fell 24% to £62.7 million or 5.5 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £82.8 million or 7.3 pence per share a year ago.

Imagination Technologies Group plc rose 1.1% to 229.90 pence after the chip designer made positive comments about 2010 and prospects for its technologies.

Lamprell plc rose 1.1% to 254.50 pence after the specialist engineer has announced that Peter Whitbread will not be seeking re-election to the board and that appointed Chris Hand to chief operating officer.

Lloyds Banking Group plc gained 8.5% to 60.32 pence and the company said that it may turn profitable this year. Analysts had estimate consolidated 2010 loss between £270 million and £320 million.

Rio Tinto plc rose 0.1% to 3,734.50 pence after the miner and Chinalco signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture covering the development and operation of the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

T. Clarke plc surged 11.4% to 156.00 pence after the building services group said 2009 revenues fell 19% to £178 million to £220 million a year ago. Net profit for the year fell 55% to £4 million or 10.03 pence per diluted share compared to net profit of £8.84 million or 22.12 pence per share a year ago.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 58 increased, 41 declined and 3 were unchanged.

Segro Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 2.96% followed by losses in Cairn Energy Plc of 2.69%, in Randgold Resources Ltd of 2.47%, in Vedanta Resources Plc of 2.37%, and in Anglo American Plc of 2.34%.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 9.18% followed by increase in The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc of 5.24%, in BAE Systems Plc of 2.52%, in Rolls-Royce Group Plc of 2.04%, and in Resolution Limited of 1.98%.