London close: Shares give up gains as Libya worries persist

7th Mar 2011 16:39

Shares closed in the red having spend most of the day in the blue after recovering from a weak start. Once again, the Libya turmoil has been casting a shadow.Oil prices are still an issue. Light crude rose to a 30-month high above $106 on Monday as fighting rages in Libya while reports that the unrest may have reached Saudi Arabia further added to the oil market's frayed nerves. Petrofac is higher after the oil fabrications giant reported only a 'minimal impact' so far from the unrest, but the company is continuing to monitor the situation closely. Intertek, the testing and inspections firm, jumped after saying it has paid £450m for Moody, a provider of quality and safety services to the global energy industry. The purchase of Haywards Heath-based Moody on a cash-free and debt-free basis will create "significant" benefits and opportunities, including pre-tax cost synergies of about £6m by the third full year of ownership.However, satellite operator Inmarsat slumped after it warned growth had slowed in the last quarter of 2010 and early 2011 due to lower usage levels.Rolls-Royce has announced that it and car maker Daimler are in discussions about a purchase of German engine maker Tognum. Rolls is among the heaviest fallers in the FTSE 100.In other mergers & acquisitions news, Forth Ports is in demand after it agreed to let its major shareholder Arcus Capital go through its books ahead of a possible £16.30 bid that would value the Scotland-based port group at just shy of £750m.Financial Times publisher Pearson has added to its educational activities with the purchase of qualifications group Educational Development International (EDI).Pearson is paying 200p a share for EDI, which values the company at about £112.7m. Shares in EDI shot up after the announcement. Educational Development accredits vocational courses for teachers, taxi drivers and other professions and provides qualifications for overseas English students in countries such as Malaysia and Burma.Reports over the weekend that BSkyB's shareholders want a much higher offer from News Corp have lifted the satellite broadcaster, while the LSE is mulling Nasdaq as a takeover target after it concludes its merger with Toronto SE according to another story.Burberry went well after Verdict suggested that the top end of the clothing retail market will grow by nearly 30%, to £8.6bn, by 2014.Stagecoach blames "unusually severe" weather conditions in December for a slowdown at its UK bus business, but its trains remain on track and revenue is up in North America. Like for like revenue grew 1.9% at UK Bus in the 40 weeks to 6 February, down from 2.3% for the six months to 31 October.Mining giant Xstrata has moved quickly to snap up the outgoing Vodafone chairman Sir John Bond as its new chairman of the board. Sir John will replace Willy Strothotte, who is to retire after the AGM on 4 May. UK oil and gas titan BG Group has signed a 20-year deal to provide 1.2m tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year to Tokyo Gas, Japan's largest city gas supplier.Recruitment firm Michael Page saw revenue surge by 16.1%, or 14.8% using constant exchange rates to £832.3m in 2010 from £716.7m in 2009, while underlying profit before tax shot up by 243% to £72.2m from £21.1m the year before.The recent good run of groceries delivery firm Ocado has been brought to a halt by UBS selling off 1m shares in the company, reducing its holding by around 3%. The Swiss bank's investment analysts cushioned the blow, somewhat, by raising their target price for the stock from 197p to 251p. UBS's analysts are neutral on the stock's investment appeal. The performance of heavyweight investment trust Foreign & Colonial in 2010 was on par with that of the trust's benchmark index but lagged that of its peer group. The net asset value per share (NAV) rose 13.6% to 346.1p with debt priced at market value. With debt priced at its nominal value, NAV improved to 351.24p at the end of 2010 from 309.84p at the end of 2009.Conveyor belt maker Fenner said that the sharp increase in profitability experienced in the first quarter has been maintained to the half year end in both its Conveyor Belting and Advanced Engineered Products divisions.Rare Earth Minerals advanced 40% in early trading before coming all the way back down again as news of a possible small investment opportunity failed to capture the market's imagination. The shares leapt to 1.36p from Friday's closing price of 0.97p, but they turned tail midmorning, and moved into negative territory in the afternoon session.Compliance software firm Access Intelligence has done pretty much what it promised in December's trading update and, despite losing money in 2010, is "cautiously optimistic" about this year. A £520,000 pre-tax profit in 2009 turned to a £1.55m loss in the year ended 30 November, as a poor performance from Cobent, bought last year for £5.2m, resulted in a £2.6m goodwill impairment charge. Admin costs were up by £1.8m.Revenues and profits slumped at telecommunications equipment supplier BATM in the year to 31 December after it suffered a decline in sales to telecoms services giant Nokia Siemens Networks. Pre-tax profits slid to $1.03m from $18.45m the previous year on revenues that were down to $120.58m from $135.39m.Property investment company CLS reported close to a fourfold increase in annual profit, despite difficult conditions and spending cuts in the UK, after gains from revaluation of investment properties.FTSE 100 - RisersIntertek Group (ITRK) 1,994.00p +5.00%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,200.00p +3.63%Investec (INVP) 474.50p +2.13%International Power (IPR) 324.80p +1.91%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 230.50p +1.63%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,633.00p +1.55%Aggreko (AGK) 1,505.00p +1.42%Aviva (AV.) 469.90p +1.32%ARM Holdings (ARM) 590.00p +1.11%WPP (WPP) 823.00p +1.04%FTSE 100 - FallersInmarsat (ISAT) 593.00p -13.37%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,365.00p -3.55%Serco Group (SRP) 599.50p -3.07%Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,210.00p -2.41%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,904.00p -1.96%Wolseley (WOS) 2,120.00p -1.90%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 61.01p -1.79%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,448.00p -1.70%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 957.50p -1.69%Barclays (BARC) 307.95p -1.64%FTSE 250 - RisersHochschild Mining (HOC) 680.00p +5.43%Forth Ports (FPT) 1,605.00p +5.38%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 471.40p +4.25%Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 315.20p +4.16%Hansen Transmissions International NV (DI) (HSN) 41.30p +3.25%Fenner (FENR) 352.00p +3.23%Genus (GNS) 982.50p +3.20%Elementis (ELM) 158.00p +2.86%Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 184.70p +2.78%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 174.50p +2.65%FTSE 250 - FallersHowden Joinery Group (HWDN) 109.50p -5.03%Supergroup (SGP) 1,489.00p -3.12%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 737.50p -2.96%Travis Perkins (TPK) 999.00p -2.82%Ocado Group (OCDO) 207.00p -2.59%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 308.90p -2.25%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 395.00p -2.23%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 139.80p -2.17%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 406.60p -2.12%PartyGaming (PRTY) 185.00p -2.12%