London close: Up and down day for London

31st Mar 2010 17:07

The movements of the blue-chip index looked like they were being directed by the grand old Duke of York on Wednesday, with the market finishing neither up nor down.British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was predictably outraged at the decision by telecoms regulator Ofcom to order it to make its two top sports channels available to rivals at a 23% discount to the current price, but there was more than a suspicion that, behind closed doors, Sky executives would have been chuffed that Ofcom decided not to include the Sky movies package in its ruling, preferring instead to pass the buck to the Competition Commission.The 23% reduction was a bigger cut than the 20% reduction industry insiders had been predicting but not as severe as the 25% cut Nomura Securities had been predicting. In the end the market decided it could have been worse, with BSKyB higher and major complainant BT slightly lower.Gartmore was the other big story. The shares were down sharply in early trading after tumbling 31% yesterday following the suspension of star fund manager Guillaume Rambourg, but subsequently rallied. Gartmore, which only floated in December and is now worth less than half its listing value, insisted the suspension was not connected with the FSA's recent spate of insider dealing arrests.Gold miner Randgold Resources sparkled after it reported a 69% increase in its total mineral resources and a 75% rise in its attributable mineral reserves for the year to December 2009. BG Group edged up after securing a deal to supply Tokyo Gas with liquefied natural gas from the Queensland Curtis facility.Catering giant Compass has had a good first half, with efficiency measures helping to improve margins in the face of sluggish revenues in many markets. The company, which provides catering for schools, businesses and hospitals, said revenue is expected to be broadly flat compared with the same period the previous year, with efficiency measures helping to improve margins by about 50 basis points.Sugar and sweeteners company Tate & Lyle said currency movements, in particular the stronger US dollar, will benefit its reported performance in the final quarter. Underlying trading in the quarter has been consistent with expectations, the group added.Goodfellas pizza and Fox's biscuits group Northern Foods reported a drop in fourth-quarter like for like sales but said it will deliver full-year profits in line with expectations. The group said the 1.8% in quarterly like for like sales was due to the planned exit from its low margin frozen business.Elsewhere in the food sector Country Life butter maker Dairy Crest said it performed well in the year to March 31, with profits ahead of last year and borrowings substantially lower, though advertising spending contributed to a slight fall in profits in the spreads and cheese division.Hilton Food served up a 16% rise in full year pre-tax profit as volumes increased and expects further growth in 2010.Functional foods developer Provexis expects to have net cash of £7m at the end of March 2010. It has also entered into a three-year, £25m equity financing facility provided by Evolution Securities through its subsidiary Darwin Strategic. This could be used to help finance acquisitions.United Utilities has signed a £30, five year deal with Cable & Wireless Worldwide to provide converged voice and data network services to its 300 UK sites including data centres, water works and two key contact centres.The impact of severe weather in the UK and North America during the fourth quarter is expected to hit Firstgroup's annual operating profit by approximately £16m, the bus and train group said. Tenanted pub group Enterprise Inns said it was making 'excellent progress' in selling off its underperforming pubs. The group said there has been no 'material change' in its performance since January, which disappointed the market, which had been hoping for a gradual improvement in trading conditions. Punch Taverns slides down in sympathy.SSE Renewables, the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has secured a £400m loan facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help finance the development of renewable energy schemes in the UK and Ireland. The EIB funding takes the total funding which SSE has secured since July 2008 to almost £3.8bn.Toy racing car and train set maker Hornby is on track for a solid performance in the current financial year, and is now seeing a strong recovery in orders.IDOX, which supplies software and services to the public sector , has agreed to acquire 11 contracts to provide land and property information services to UK local authorities from data processor Macdonald, Dettwiler and Associates for £2.9m.Shares in metals group Delta fell back after it said discussions about an offer to rival one from US firm Valmont have ended.Shares in Intec Telecom Systems dropped sharply after the group warned that first-half revenues will be about 10-15% below forecasts and hurt profits due to order delays and pricing pressures.The vampire craze is driving sales at film distributor Entertainment One, which expects its full-year results to be at the top end of the recently upgraded market forecasts. During March 2010, the group's DVD release of 'New Moon', the second of the Twilight vampire films, reached number one in the UK and Canadian DVD charts with more than 1.5m units sold across the two territories.Wind turbine blade maker Clipper Windpower posted another huge loss in 2009, but expects to return to break even in the current year. Revenue rose to $744m from $737m. Losses totalled $241m against $313.3m as one-off costs fell to $124m from $235m East London property investor O Twelve Estates has sold a Swanley industrial estate for £24.4m, against its most recent valuation of £17.8m. This has helped cut its loan from Nationwide Building Society to £145m. This gain on NAV will help to wipe out the net liabilities on the O Twelve Estates balance sheet.Sports marketing group CSS Stellar's revenue from continuing operations for the fell 61% to £1.4m in 2009 as it change sales recognition from gross to a net fixed fee. Group operating loss, prior to impairment of goodwill of £0.3m, was £0.2m. There was pre-tax loss of £549,000 against £2.2m.FTSE 100 - RisersBritish Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 602.00p +3.44%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 62.77p +2.30%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,015.00p +2.06%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 92.00p +1.88%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,797.50p +1.73%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 44.00p +1.71%Prudential (PRU) 547.50p +1.58%Xstrata (XTA) 1,248.50p +1.50%Anglo American (AAL) 2,874.00p +1.41%Unilever (ULVR) 1,935.00p +1.20%FTSE 100 - FallersSEGRO (SGRO) 319.60p -2.83%Petrofac Ltd (PFC) 1,202.00p -1.72%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 710.50p -1.66%Kingfisher (KGF) 214.40p -1.43%United Utilities Group (UU.) 559.00p -1.41%BAE Systems (BA.) 371.30p -1.17%Bunzl (BNZL) 721.00p -1.10%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,032.00p -1.05%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,527.00p -1.04%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,010.00p -0.99%FTSE 250 - RisersGartmore Group (GRT) 125.00p +7.76%Senior (SNR) 110.40p +7.29%Imagination Technologies (IMG) 242.40p +3.63%Savills (SVS) 348.00p +3.45%FTSE 250 - FallersConnaught (CNT) 247.00p -9.39%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 120.00p -7.62%Punch Taverns (PUB) 80.00p -4.76%FirstGroup (FGP) 359.00p -4.16%FTSE TechMARK - RisersAntisoma (ASM) 7.50p +11.94%Filtronic (FTC) 33.50p +7.20%FTSE TechMARK - FallersIntec Telecom Systems (ITL) 58.00p -38.62%Psion (PON) 79.00p -5.95%