FTSE 100 movers: Tullow Oil jumps on big new find

16th Sep 2009 13:24

Tullow Oil is comfortably the best performer as it joined a growing list of companies announcing huge oil finds in recent weeks.The Irish group is part of a consortium led by US group Andarko, which also includes Repsol and Woodside, which made the discovery on the Venus-B1 well offshore Sierra Leone. 'The Venus discovery confirms the existence of an active petroleum system in the basin and enhances the prospectivity of our vast West Africa acreage position,' said Bob Daniels, Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration. 'With Jubilee on the east and Venus on the west, we have established bookends spanning approximately 1,100 kilometers (700 miles),' he added.Next is going well on its interim figures. The fashion retailer enjoyed better than expected progress in the first half, but kept its 'conservative' forecasts for second half like for like sales unchanged. Pre-tax profit for the six months to July rose 7% to £185.5m, in line with analysts' forecasts, on revenue up a touch to £1.51bn from £1.5bn in 2008. Like for like sales at the Retail business fell 1.2%, ahead of the firm's initial expectations, while total sales, which includes new stores, were up 0.8%. Retail profit increased by 4.4%. KBC Peel Hunt is contemplating upgrading its target price and expects consensus forecasts for full year pre-tax profit are likely to rise as a result of the half-year update, and may even move above last year's pre-tax profit of £429m.FTSE 100 - RisersTullow Oil (TLW) 1,164.00p +7.08%Fresnillo (FRES) 786.00p +4.94%Xstrata (XTA) 993.50p +4.91%Next (NXT) 1,782.00p +4.89%Lonmin (LMI) 1,832.00p +4.75%Randgold Resources (RRS) 4,546.00p +4.72%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 901.00p +4.65%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 701.00p +4.55%FTSE 100 - FallersSmiths Group (SMIN) 866.00p -1.53%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,157.00p -0.86%Centrica (CNA) 265.90p -0.78%National Grid (NG.) 618.00p -0.56%Unilever (ULVR) 1,649.00p -0.30%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 332.40p -0.18%Compass Group (CPG) 354.10p -0.11%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,756.00p -0.11%