London: Man Group, HMV, British Air

Mayank Mehta
26 Mar, 2010
New York City

UK business investment dropped in the fourth quarter and construction spending led the largest decline. The pound declined against the dollar and the euro. HMV Group Plc surged 10% after the music and book retailer said it will focus on live events. UK 10-year bonds yields increased to 4.03%.

[R]6:00 PM London, 2:00 PM New York – UK business investment dropped in the fourth quarter. The pound declined against the dollar and the euro. HMV Group Plc surged 10% after the music and book retailer said it will focus on live events.[/R]

UK stocks and the pound declined at close. European Union 16-member nations approved emerging financial assistance program for Greece.

The plan brokered by France and Germany and approved by 16 member nations will lend at market rate to Greece to meet its budget requirements. The extent of the financial assistance was not released but 123jump.com contacts in the diplomatic community suggested as much as 19 billion euros available to Greece.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 24.63 or 0.43% to 5,703.02 and the pound edged lower to close at $1.488 and at €1.115.

The pound declined for the second day against the euro and dropped for the second week in a row against the dollar. For the year so far, the pound is down 6.5% against the dollar.

Business investment in the fourth quarter of 2009 declined 4.3% from the third quarter and dropped 23.5% from a year ago quarter according to the latest data released by the Office for National Statistics.

British Airways is preparing to reassign flights as the flight attendants and cabin crew are likely to carry their strike beginning tomorrow affecting 60,000 travelers.

Gainers & Losers

Aggreko PLC decreased 0.4% to 1,187.00 pence after the temporary power and heating specialist announced that it has signed a contract with the national utility company of Côte d''Ivoire to provide 70 MW of temporary power fueled by natural gas to support the country''s national grid for the next two years.

Brewin Dolphin Holdings PLC the independent private client investment managers rose 0.2% to 135.00 pence.

Chemring Group PLC rose 0.2% to 3,332.00 pence after the company announced that its US subsidiary, has been awarded an additional order of $30.9 million of decoy flares to the US Department of Defense.

De La Rue plc fell 1.3% to 935.00 pence after the banknote printer said Friday that trading during the final quarter of its fiscal year to March 27 has been in line with its expectations.

Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC rose 0.8% to 509.50 pence after the business publisher estimated higher net income.

F&C Asset Management plc fell 0.6% to 60.40 pence after the asset manager decided not to proceed with its potential offer for Austria''s C-Quadrat just three days after submitting offer documents, according to Reuters.

HMV Group Plc surged 10.2% to 87 pence after the music and book retailer said it will allocate more resources to live events and restructure its Waterstone’s book retail chain.

Man Group declined 3.6% to 242.40 pence and Bloomberg reported that the largest UK money manager is looking to acquire asset managers in the US. According to the report, Man has talked to SAC Capital and considered the possibility of acquiring GLG Capital.

Homeserve plc the home maintenance specialist increased 3.4% to 1,820.00 pence.

PartyGaming plc fell 0.1% to 328.30 pence after the online gaming specialist today announces that it has signed a multi-year, exclusive deal to provide an online poker service for the French market to PMU.

Songbird Estates plc closed unchanged at 174.50 pence after the property company said 2009 net rental income rose 2.6% to £408.7 million from £398.5 million a year ago. Net profit for the year was £131.0 million or 57.7 pence per diluted share compared to net loss of £1.09 billion or 972.7 pence per share a year.

SSL International plc added 1.2% to 808.50 pence.

Wincanton plc dropped 0.9% to 205.00 pence after the provider of supply chain and business outsourcing services secured five-year storage and distribution contract with the U.S. based Best Buy Co. ahead of its launch in the UK in the next three months.

FTSE 100 Index Movers

Of the stocks in the FTSE 100 index, 37 increased, 63 declined and 3 were unchanged.

Cable & Wireless Communications Plc decliners in the FTSE 100 index with a loss of 62.06% followed by losses in International Power Plc of 4.09%, in Man Group Plc of 4.02%, in Scottish and Southern Energy Plc of 2.40%, and in BG Group Plc of 1.72%.

Cable & Wireless Plc led gainers in the FTSE 100 index with a rise of 24.07% followed by increase in WPP Plc of 3.09%, in Marks and Spencer Group Plc of 2.31%, in Experian Plc of 1.77%, and in The British Land Company Plc of 1.68%.