London afternoon: Dull mood continues

29th Sep 2010 14:15

Leading shares remain mixed but with a lower bias as investors continue to fret over European debt issues. Debt-stricken Ireland is the focus of attention again. The rating agency Standard & Poors says the price of bailing out nationalised bank Anglo Irish could exceed $47bn. Banks Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are among the prominent fallers in London.Vedanta Resources is the worst performing blue-chip after an Indian court ruled that the mining giant's copper smelting plant at Tuticorin, South India, must close. A writ petition challenging the environmental clearance and building of the smelter was originally filed in the high court of Madras in 1996-98, but a ruling in 1999 allowed the plant to operate at its rated capacity. Counterbalancing this, BP is going well on a safety initiative. A new safety division with "sweeping powers to oversee and audit the company's operations around the world" will be set up and run by Mark Bly, current head of safety and operations. "It will have its own expert staff embedded in BP's operating units, including exploration projects and refineries. It will be responsible for ensuring that all operations are carried out to common standards, and for auditing compliance with those standards," new chief executive Bob Dudley said. Rolls-Royce, the aero engine developer, gets a lift from Morgan Stanley, which has upgraded the stock from "equal weight" to "overweight" and hoisted the target price to 720p from 580p.Sticking with the aeroplane theme, British Airways has finally signed its well-flagged transatlantic ticketing and revenue share agreement with American Airlines and merger partner Iberia. It starts in October and is worth a combined $7bn in annual revenues. Smiths Group has ramped up full-year headline profit by 17% and is delivering on its cost savings ahead of plan, but the diversified high-tech group warns that growth in both sales and profit will be slower this year.Dairy Crest is the cream of the crop in the FTSE 250 after saying that it has renewed its fresh milk contract with the supermarket Morrisons through to 2015. A trading update from the milk, cheese and butter supplier is due tomorrow.Rail and bus operator FirstGroup is another motoring ahead. The company is currently trading in line with management expectations and is on track to deliver moderate earnings growth target for the full year.Fast growing pizza delivery franchise operator Domino's Pizza has not been growing quite so fast in the last three months but still notched up an enviable increase in like for like (LFL) sales. In the 13 weeks to 26 September LFL sales were 9.9% higher than a year earlier, while in the year to date LFL sales were up 12.5% on a year earlier.Volumes traded through the London Stock Exchange have slowed recently in conditions described as variable. Average UK daily shares traded increased 9% year-on-year to £5bn in the five months to August, though trading volumes since June have been much lower, the LSE said.Misys shareholders should get their split of the Allscripts sale proceeds in November, the financial software provider confirmed today as it flagged a pretty flat first quarter. The return of £780m made from the sale of healthcare division Allscripts, completed last month, will be returned to investors via a tender offer, expected during November. Misys has kept a 10% stake.Engineering support services company Babcock International is a strong performer after it said current pressures on spending will slow short-term revenue growth but its order book and bid pipeline remain strong.Britain's biggest tile and wood flooring specialist, Topps Tiles said full year adjusted pre-tax is expected to be within analysts' estimates after an uptick in demand in the fourth quarter. The current range of analysts' estimates for adjusted full year pre-tax profit is between £14.5m and £17.1m, the group said.Internet video security specialist IndigoVision posted a 6% drop in annual operating profit but said it had an encouraging start to the new financial year, with sales comfortably ahead of last year.Air conditioning unit hirer Andrews Sykes lifted profits to £7.11m, from £6.5m, in the half year to June, despite sales weakening a little to £27.6m. Overall, the board is cautiously anticipating a reasonable performance for the rest of 2010, it added.