London close: Footsie edges higher

16th Jun 2010 16:47

Footsie closed slightly higher on a fairly lacklustre day for the leading share index.Part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland went well on a day which saw it shed two parts of its sprawling empire. It has reached agreement for the sale of its 99.37% holding in RBS Pakistan to Faysal Bank Limited for €41m, or about 2.5 rupees per share, a substantial discount to last night's closing price in Karachi. It later announced that it as sold its UAE Retail Banking business to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). The total cash consideration payable is equal to the net asset value of the business at completion plus a premium of about £31m.Supermarket Sainsbury's has outdone arch rival Tesco in the growth stakes with a 4.6% increase in like for like sales during the first quarter and is apparently doing a buzzing trade in Vuvuzela horns. "We have made a good start to the financial year in line with our expectations," said boss Justin King.BP closed lower ahead of president Obama's press conference on the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. Reports say BP has agreed to put about $20bn in escrow ahead of any payouts. Meanwhile, official estimates now put the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf at 60,000 barrels a day compared with initial estimates from BP of just 5,000. Oil explorer Cairn Energy has received formal approval from the Government of Greenland to start drilling the first two wells of a planned four well exploration programme in the Disko West area, offshore Western Greenland. Utility companies Severn Trent and United Utilities were both trading in ex-dividend form today. The latter said Charlie Cornish, the managing director of its Utility Solutions division, is leaving the board after more than six years to run Manchester Airport for a rumoured £500,000-a-year. Citigroup's opinion appeared to move the price of two blue-chip shares today. Aggreko is on the up after Citi upgraded it to "buy" from "hold" but fund manager Schroders is in retreat following Citi's downgrade of the stock to "sell" from "buy".Satellite operator Inmarsat, meanwhile, is still suffering from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgrade announced yesterday. The broker has cut its rating on the shares from "neutral" to "underperform", saying the company will have to spend piles of cash to replace its older satellites.In the FTSE 250, speciality plastic and fibre products provider Filtrona is up 15% after saying it continues to trade ahead of expectations Having cheered its shareholders back in April with news of strong trading the group said that the outperformance has continued for the nine week period to 5 June.Elsewhere, the environment for government and public sector contracts has worsened markedly under the new coalition government, consultant and civil engineer contractor Mouchel warned, with its order pipeline falling since March. Agricultural products supplier Wynnstay served up a 12% increase in half year profit and said it remained 'very positive about growth prospects, short and long term.'Intelek shares shot ahead as the electronics group agreed a cash takeover from US firm Teledyne at more than double yesterday's closing share price. The offer price of 32p per Intelek share represents a premium of approximately of 106% to the last market price. It values the?the company in total at £28m.Brazil-focused gold miner Serabi Mining has agreed to issue 120m shares at 3p each to Eldorado Gold Corporation, which produces the precious metal in Turkey, China, Brazil and Greece. Following the subscription, Eldorado will hold 26.8% of Serabi's share capital.Wireless solutions provider Cyan has received an initial order for 10,000 wireless electricity meter monitors from a global major manufacturer. The units are intended for the Indian market. The order represents one of the smallest of several tenders that Cyan understands are currently open in the Indian market. Cyan products are being quoted into further tenders from both this and other end customers.FTSE 100 - RisersShire Plc (SHP) 1,461.00p +2.38%Old Mutual (OML) 115.50p +2.30%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 45.18p +2.17%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,757.50p +2.12%BG Group (BG.) 1,136.00p +2.07%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 667.00p +1.99%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,708.00p +1.94%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,575.00p +1.88%Experian Group (EXPN) 639.00p +1.83%Aggreko (AGK) 1,471.00p +1.80%FTSE 100 - FallersSevern Trent (SVT) 1,248.00p -4.22%Inmarsat (ISAT) 750.00p -3.78%United Utilities Group (UU.) 539.00p -3.66%Schroders (SDR) 1,320.00p -3.30%Wolseley (WOS) 1,561.00p -2.86%Kingfisher (KGF) 225.20p -2.72%Schroders NV (SDRC) 1,065.00p -2.56%Man Group (EMG) 239.40p -2.48%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,052.00p -1.68%Capita Group (CPI) 798.00p -1.48%FTSE 250 - RisersFiltrona PLC (FLTR) 221.90p +13.16%Senior (SNR) 135.70p +5.19%Provident Financial (PFG) 902.50p +3.86%Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 110.00p +3.68%Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) 308.00p +3.46%Gartmore Group (GRT) 115.60p +3.40%Ecofin Water & Power Opportunities (ECWO) 142.50p +3.34%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,335.00p +3.05%Computacenter (CCC) 320.90p +2.85%IG Group Holdings (IGG) 449.60p +2.65%FTSE 250 - FallersHansteen Holdings (HSTN) 65.00p -6.47%Grainger (GRI) 108.70p -3.98%Laird (LRD) 120.00p -3.46%Gem Diamonds (GEMD) 235.80p -3.16%Premier Farnell (PFL) 239.00p -3.08%SIG (SHI) 109.10p -2.94%Unite Group (UTG) 173.10p -2.92%ITV (ITV) 57.00p -2.90%William Hill (WMH) 178.70p -2.88%CSR (CSR) 422.40p -2.76%