London afternoon: Leading shares mixed

6th Jan 2010 13:50

The list of Footsie constituents is now almost evenly split between risers and fallers but the blue-chip index remains in negative territory, weighed down by Marks & Spencer, which remains out of favour after a disappointing trading update. It was not the numbers from Marks & Spencer that upset the market so much as caution about 2010. A record day in the food department helped boost M&S's overall sales. Sales rose 2.6% in the 13 weeks to 26 December and by 2.3% in the UK. A 0.8% increase in UK like for like sales could have been an extra 1% higher if the period had included the first day of the Christmas sale on 27 December.Oilfield support services group Petrofac is another leading stock in the doghouse after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘equal weight’.Worries over tax rises proposed in the Pre-Budget report sent consumer confidence falling at its fastest rate for a year last month, the latest survey from Nationwide reveals. The building society’s consumer confidence index for December dropped by five points to 69 as people became more pessimistic about the future economic situation.The news hit retailers already reeling from M&S’s cautious comments, with Tesco, Sainsbury and Burberry especially hard hit.The share price of Royal Bank of Scotland is up by about a quarter over the last week and it is going well again today, A broker note from Exane BNP Paribas kicked off the revival on Monday; the broker suggested that ‘fundamental (rather than purely speculative) investor interest’ will return in 2010, and cranked up its rating on RBS from ‘neutral’ to ‘outperform’.Elsewhere in the financial sector, life assurance giant Prudential is to sell its products in the branches of United Overseas Bank (UOB) in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. In addition to this new partnership, Prudential will buy UOB’s life assurance unit in Singapore for S$428m (£192m) in cash, subject to a post-completion adjustment to reflect the net asset value as at the completion date. Plumbers’ merchant Wolseley is the best performer as it shrugged off news that pending home sales fell for the first time in nine months, down a sharper than expected 16% in November.Data search and interpretative software specialist Autonomy expects to report 2009 results in line with analyst consensus estimates of revenues of about $740m and fully diluted EPS (adjusted) of $0.97. The statement perked up the shares after they took a bath yesterday in response to comments from Astaire Securities suggesting the company might not meet full year sales targets after a subdued fourth quarter. High flying pizza delivery outfit Domino’s ended 2009 with a flourish, and expects full year figures to be ‘comfortably ahead’ of expectations. Like for like (lfl) sales rose 8.6%, the same as in the same period a year earlier, making the lfl growth figure for the year as a whole 8.4%. This was down from the previous year’s 10% lfl growth figure, however.Other companies expecting to top expectations are speciality pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma, Scottish cake and sweet maker Lees Foods and fantasy war games publisher and seller Games Workshop. The latter said it expects profits this year will come in some £5m ahead of market forecasts as cost cutting benefits and royalty income come through strongly.Majestic Wines' sales jumped by nearly 12% in the nine weeks to 4 January as its decision to cut the minimum order from 12 bottles to 6 bottles paid off handsomely. "Like for like UK sales for Majestic were up 11.7% for the nine weeks of Christmas trading from 3 November 2009 to 4 January 2010," Majestic said in its Christmas update.Aviation and distribution group John Menzies delivered a belated Christmas present to shareholders by saying that results for 2009 are expected to be ahead of expectations.Support services group Cape has seen activity levels remain strong during the second half and expects full year results to be at least in line with market expectations.UK Coal disappointed the market by disclosing that 2009 production was at the lower end of the range indicated by the company in mid-November. The mining company has encountered difficult geological conditions at the new face at its Daw Mill mine.Deo Petroleum, formerly Microcap Equities, says it doesn’t know why its shares have shot up since yesterday morning. Shares in the company, which intends to invest in oil and gas businesses, were trading at just half a penny early Tuesday.Shares in SeaEnergy climbed after the wind farm group said Moray Offshore Renewables, a joint venture that is 25% owned by its 80%-owned subsidiary Sea Energy Renewables, is expected to be awarded the right to develop wind power technology in northeast Scotland.Victoria Oil & Gas advanced after the oil and gas explorer and developer reported positive results from a gas project in Cameroon. At the Logbaba gas and condensate project in Douala, multiple gas-bearing sands were encountered at virgin pressures at depths between 6,017 feet and 8,330 feet.