FTSE 100 movers: Dividend news boosts United

21st Jan 2010 15:19

United Utilities is among the best of the risers on a tough day as an expected dividend cut following the latest Ofwat review came in lower than forecast.The group has also decided not to seek a referral to the Competition Commission of what it termed a 'challenging price review' by water regulator Ofwat, but instead will rebase the dividend to 30p a share for fiscal 2010/11 and thereafter will continue with its policy of targeting dividend growth of 2% above the inflation rate per annum.The board expects to grow the final dividend for 2009/10 by 5%, which would make the total dividend for the year 34.3p. Miners are the laggards on continuing concerns about the Chinese economy following the decision yesterday to order banks in the country to stop lending. Economic data today showed china's economy grew by 8.7% in 2009 after trumping official growth targets in the last quarter of the year.A massive $586bn of fiscal stimulus and new bank lending of $1.2trn helped gross domestic product jump 10.7% in the fourth quarter versus the last three months of 2008. Anglo American and Fresnillo are the worst performers.FTSE 100 - RisersBritish Airways (BAY) 212.30p +5.00%United Utilities Group (UU.) 533.50p +4.92%International Power (IPR) 322.00p +3.21%Carnival (CCL) 2,331.00p +3.14%Reed Elsevier (REL) 525.00p +2.84%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,156.00p +2.57%Rexam (REX) 304.60p +2.01%Prudential (PRU) 618.50p +1.98%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 36.46p -4.05%Anglo American (AAL) 2,551.00p -3.77%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 54.75p -3.10%Fresnillo (FRES) 753.00p -2.96%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,322.00p -2.94%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,466.00p -2.79%Barclays (BARC) 292.65p -2.73%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,379.00p -2.51%