London midday: Footsie maintains lead

25th Nov 2009 12:09

Stocks are steady at lunchtime Wednesday as miners remain firmly on the front foot, while bid speculation is behind big gains at International Power.The hot money is on International Power at the moment, with investors betting that French utility GDF Suez will bid £6bn, or 400p-a-share, for the electricity generator.Other utilities are lagging though. Water companies, United Utilities and Severn Trent, and British Gas-owner Centrica are off the boil. United said profit before tax including exceptional items tumbled to £206.1m from £305.8m.Miners are the place to be once again. Randgold Resources is benefitting from an eighth consecutive gain for gold as the dollar's brief rally came to an end. The yellow metal hit another record high at $1,180 an ounce.Kazakhmys, BHP Billiton and Anglo American are also marching north.Breaking up the miners' domination of the top ten risers is contract caterer Compass Group. It saw little sales growth when it declared full year results this morning, but pre-tax profit still showed a healthy rise on the back of a strong improvement in margins and currency gains.In economic news, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said the UK economy shrank less than previously estimated in the third quarter, contracting by 0.3% between July and September versus an earlier read of 0.4%.Traders already think the UK will exit recession this year, so today's slight upward revision came as little surprise Weak car production and lower metals prices earlier this year took their toll on platinum refiner Johnson Matthey's first half, though it expects an improvement over the rest of the year.The London Stock Exchange's first half pre-tax profit was hit by increased competition, fewer floats and weaker equity trading. Profit before tax fell to £79.4m in the six month ended 30 September compared with £127m in the previous year.Defence technology group QinetiQ posted a slight fall in profits in the six months to September 30 and said some orders were being delayed in the UK and US amid uncertainty over government spending. Pre-tax profits fell to £45.1m from £45.9m over the same period the previous year as revenues climbed to £806.3m from £727.4m. The market is unimpressed.Design and engineering consultancy group WS Atkins reported a 13% drop in first half profit, but said it is well placed to make good progress in the second half of the year. Pre-tax profit fell to £43.5m in the six month ended 30 September compared with £50m last time. Investors have piled in.Plant hire firm Speedy Hire swung to a half year loss and said it expects to broadly break-even at an adjusted profit before tax level for the second half. Losses before taxation, amortisation and exceptional items came to £4.8m in the six month ended 30 September compared with a profit of £23.8m last time. Revenue of £184.8m was down 27.9%.Soft drinks group Britvic said it was winning market share in all key categories as it posted a rise in revenues and profits. The firm, which sells Robinsons fruit juice and has the license for Pepsi in the UK said pre-tax profits in the year to September 27 climbed to £86.5m from £70.1m the previous year on revenues that rose to £978.8m from £926.5m. Recruiter Harvey Nash warned over results for the full year as demand for permanent staff has not picked up as hoped. In the third quarter, Nash saw a 23% decrease in revenues and a 72% decrease in adjusted profit before taxation.