London afternoon: Market consolidates gains

24th Mar 2011 14:24

Footsie has maintained most of its gains from the morning but there are signs that it is running out of steam even though Wall Street opened in positive territory. Wall Street has been heading lower since the start and it is only just still in positive territory. The two large earthquakes in Burma may affect sentiment. There were strong updates from retailers Next and Kingfisher.Both firms made good money last year and increased their dividends accordingly.Next paraded a 9% rise in full-year profit to a new record, exactly what the City was expecting following guidance from the fashion retailer in January. Profit before tax increased to £551.4m in the 12 months to January, up from £505.3m in 2010, led by catalogue arm Next Directory where profits jumped 21% from £183.6m to £221.9m this time.The shares move up, dragging Marks & Spencer and Debenhams along with them. Do-it-yourself retailer Kingfisher built profits by 19% last year, pretty much in line with market expectations. The B&Q owner made £671m in the year ended 29 January, up from £566m last time. The increase was 22.5% when adjusted for one-off items. Sales fell 0.5% to £10.45bn, in line, but rose 0.5% at constant currency. They dropped 0.9% on a like for like basis.Tobacco group Imperial is running out of puff. Underlying first half tobacco net revenues are expected to increase by around 2%, as anticipated, but the group said the Spanish market remains challenging due to an increase in duty in December, the ban on smoking in public places and the continuing weakness of the Spanish economy.The shares move down, taking sector peer BATs with them. Invensys is sharply lower after the abrupt departure of chief executive Ulf Henriksson. He will be replaced by Wayne Edmunds, who steps up from the role of chief financial officer (CFO). The CFO role at the engineering firm will be taken for the time being by David Thomas, who has held senior financial roles within the group since 2002. A longer goodbye is to be said by Sir Kevin Smith at aerospace and vehicles engineer GKN. Smith will step down from the chief executive role at the end of the year, GKN said.Cable & Wireless Worldwide is under the cosh after it slashed earnings expectations for 2011-12, as a result of a squeeze from inflationary pressures and pressure on prices. The telecoms titan now expects flats earnings next year compared with earlier market forecasts of growth from £444m to £470m.Oil firm Premier Oil notched up record revenue and profit in 2010 as oil and gas prices rocketed higher. Sales revenues in 2010 jumped to $763.6m from $621.1m in 2009, while profit before tax moved through the $100m barrier to $100.8m from $79.9m the year before, helped by a $38.6m gain on derivative financial instruments; in 2009, the company booked a $61.1m loss on derivatives. Stagecoach Group has welcomed the announcement by the Department for Transport that its joint venture group, Virgin Rail, has pre-qualified to bid for the new West Coast rail franchise, which is expected to start in April 2012. It will be in competition for the franchise with First Group.Stagecoach is also in the running for the East Coast franchise, currently being run by National Express. It will be competing with Go-Ahead Group for this franchise.United Utilities is still trading "slightly" ahead of management expectations, keeping the water utility on track for a "solid" underlying full-year result.Fashion retailer Ted Baker revealed a 24.2% rise in annual pre-tax profit, after strong international demand, and said it is well placed for 2011 despite the uncertain economic outlook.Irish medical devices manufacturer ClearStream Technologies is poorly even after it revealed half year revenues nearly doubled as it posted a net profit compared to a loss the same time a year earlier.Healthcare Locums finance director Diane Jarvis has followed founder Kate Bleasdale out of the door. FTSE 100 - RisersKingfisher (KGF) 263.90p +8.24%Next (NXT) 2,051.00p +4.38%Essar Energy (ESSR) 487.80p +4.21%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 357.40p +3.44%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 223.20p +3.33%IMI (IMI) 1,008.00p +3.17%BG Group (BG.) 1,519.50p +3.02%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,283.00p +2.72%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 291.70p +2.64%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 118.00p +2.52%FTSE 100 - FallersInvensys (ISYS) 335.70p -6.05%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,877.00p -2.34%Amec (AMEC) 1,150.00p -1.54%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,006.00p -0.84%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,314.00p -0.83%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 682.00p -0.73%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,400.00p -0.71%Carnival (CCL) 2,452.00p -0.65%BT Group (BT.A) 179.30p -0.61%G4S (GFS) 251.80p -0.59%FTSE 250 - RisersRPC Group (RPC) 268.00p +10.65%Kofax (KFX) 505.00p +5.65%Punch Taverns (PUB) 73.80p +5.58%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 115.10p +5.40%Debenhams (DEB) 63.55p +5.39%SIG (SHI) 137.80p +5.03%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 653.00p +4.73%Grainger (GRI) 107.90p +4.15%Ocado Group (OCDO) 215.00p +4.12%Afren (AFR) 159.70p +3.70%FTSE 250 - FallersCable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 53.75p -15.09%Drax Group (DRX) 370.40p -5.56%Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 440.90p -2.99%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 426.50p -2.76%Rank Group (RNK) 146.30p -2.66%EnQuest (ENQ) 135.20p -1.74%Savills (SVS) 356.90p -1.73%Shanks Group (SKS) 113.20p -1.57%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 48.55p -1.54%IG Group Holdings (IGG) 467.30p -1.52%