FTSE 100 movers: Admiral on the rocks

24th Aug 2011 14:37

Africa-focused oil giant Tullow Oil reported a huge surge in sales and profits in the six months ended 30 June, helped by increased production from the Jubilee field off Ghana and higher commodity prices. The strong results enabled the firm to double its interim dividend from 2p per share to 4p per share.The shares shot up, even though the group scaled back its full-year production guidance, due to rig delays on its Jubilee field. The move was widely expected by the market, after its partner on the Jubilee field, Kosmos Energy, reported a slower than expected ramp-up of production at the field, located off the coast of Ghana.Admiral has navigated into choppy waters despite unveiling record interim results. Turnover jumped 53% to £1.1bn from £720.5m the year before, prompting a jubilant chief executive officer Henry Engelhardt to comment that "it wasn't so long ago that we were pleased to report over £1bn turnover for a full year." The board was so pleased with the first half performance it decided to give every member of staff £1,500 in shares, worth over £8m in aggregate. The market was in less generous mood, focusing on the group's loss ratio - the percentage of premiums received that is paid out in claims - which surged to 77.5% from 67.8% in the first half of last year and 69.4% for the whole of 2010.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 211.60p +7.90%WPP (WPP) 622.00p +7.24%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,004.00p +6.08%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 21.13p +5.65%Xstrata (XTA) 985.70p +5.06%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 29.70p +4.95%Glencore International (GLEN) 384.45p +4.63%ARM Holdings (ARM) 534.50p +3.99%Anglo American (AAL) 2,299.00p +2.91%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,926.00p +2.77%FTSE 100 - FallersAdmiral Group (ADM) 1,351.00p -11.99%Serco Group (SRP) 498.90p -6.22%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 418.90p -2.49%Essar Energy (ESSR) 250.30p -2.04%Diageo (DGE) 1,101.00p -1.87%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,042.00p -1.26%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,560.00p -1.20%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,248.00p -1.16%Unilever (ULVR) 2,021.00p -1.03%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,706.50p -0.79%--jh