London midday: BoE expands QE programme

5th Nov 2009 10:41

London's top stocks are trading quietly after their initial fall as investors mull the Bank of England's decision to extend its quantitative easing programme by a further £25bn to £200bn.Telecoms group Cable & Wireless has dropped after it revived plans to split itself in to two parts. The announcement accompanied interim results that were much in line with market expectations, although full-year earnings guidance for C&W International was lowered, due to weaker trading conditions in the Caribbean. Rivals BT and Vodafone are the best performers along with pest control giant Rentokil, which publishes an update tomorrow.Engineering company Invensys is leading the fallers. The group said it is still confident of posting a year on year improvement in results over the full year despite being behind at the halfway stage.India-focused miner Vedanta ramped up production in the first half, although the contribution from higher volumes was more than offset by weaker metal prices. Vedanta is lower, as are fellow miners Lonmin, Xstrata, Anglo American, Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Food and household goods giant Unilever saw third quarter pre-tax profits drop by 43%, but volume growth of 3.6% came in better than expected. Pre-tax profits dropped to €1.42bn in the three month ended September compared with €2.50bn last year. Turnover was down 2% at €10.20bn.Non-life insurer RSA reported a 4% rise in net written premiums and said that while economic conditions remain challenging, it is now seeing some 'encouraging signs'. Net written premiums for the nine months to 30 September were £5,028m, an increase of 4% over the same period in 2008, but down 1% at constant exchange rates.South African insurer Old Mutual's third quarter has been much better than the first half of 2009, and the trend has continued into the fourth quarter thanks to the pick-up in the investment market.Energy supplier Centrica has entered into a further agreement with power station operator Drax Group which will provide Centrica with access to an additional 300 megawatts of baseload power. The agreement will run for five years.Hedge fund manager Man said funds under management at 30 September 2009 stood at $44bn, up from $43.3bn at the end of June. Profit before tax of $302m was 8% above the estimate made at the time of the company's pre-close statement.?Segro said the level of new enquiries for space has continued to trend downwards during the third quarter, though the property group added that some early signs of recovery have emerged over the last few weeks.Stockbroker Charles Stanley posted a 6.8% increase in half year pre-tax profit, adding 2010 will be an uncertain year for the economy.Investment company Alliance Trust has named Legal & General man Alan Trotter as its new finance director.