London midday: Footsie recovers equilibrium

15th Jul 2010 12:05

Leading shares are mixed, with laggards marginally in the majority among FTSE 100 constituents although the index itself ended the morning in positive territory.Metal prices have recovered and mining stocks are not such a drag on the index as they were in the first two hours of trading.Global information services company Experian is going well after the group said it saw an improved performance across all its geographic regions except the UK & Ireland in the May to June period. Revenues grew 7% on a constant exchange rate basis while organic revenue growth was 6%. Broker Charles Stanley reiterated its "buy" recommendation for the stock saying the company had got off to a stronger start to its new financial year than the broker had been expecting. A cloud over drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has been lifted. A joint advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration has voted to allow Glaxo's lucrative diabetes drug Avandia to remain on the market. Joy has been tempered, however, by the revelation that Glaxo expects to record a legal charge for the second quarter of 2010 of £1.57bn.A new cloud have taken up station above oil giant BP, however, after American lawmakers passed a bill that could effectively ban BP from any new drilling in US waters for seven years.Tullow Oil is up on news that it has found oil at its Nsoga-5 appraisal well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2. The group said the well has successfully encountered 10 metres of net oil pay after it was drilled to a total depth of 587 metres.Premier Oil has reported a rise in average production in the first six months of the year and said it has increasing visibility on longer-term production growth.Shares in computer services group Dimension Data are up nearly 20% after a £2.1bn offer from Japanese telecoms group NTT. Mother and baby products retailer Mothercare reported a 4.1% decline in first quarter UK like for like sales while international sales soared 20.3%. Overall group sales were up 0.4% during the 15 weeks ended 10 July. KBC Peel Hunt said that although the tough trading conditions in the UK were expected it anticipates that market consensus forecasts for full year profit before tax will move down towards the broker's own estimate of £41.2m. It has lowered its price target for Mothercare from 620p to 550p.Information management specialist SDL has purchased automated translation firm Language Weaver. SDL is paying $42.5m (£28.2m) in cash for the US firm.Distributor Electrocomponents said it has seen significantly increased levels of customer activity as it reported a 24% jump in first-quarter revenues.Oil explorer JKX Oil & Gas said results from the second well test in the Koshekhablskoye Field, Russia, "far" exceeded expectations.Oil and gas company Afren has increased its interest in the OML 115 licence, off the coast of south east Nigeria, from 32.5% to 40% through a deal with Energy Equity Resources (EER).Sticking with the oil business, services provider Hamworthy is wanted after it said it is encouraged by significant orders over recent weeks and remains confident of meeting expectations for the financial year ending 31 March 2011.SuperGroup, the fashion group behind the Superdry label, said the new financial has year started well and is in line with company expectations as it quadrupled full year pre-tax profit. Soco said it has agreed to farm-out a 20% interest in the Nganzi Block, onshore the Democratic Republic of Congo to Inpex Corporation (Inpex). Abcam, which markets antibodies via its own online catalogue, said profit before tax will be around 9% higher than expectations as sales rose on the back of a weaker pound.FTSE 100 - RisersEssar Energy (ESSR) 444.80p +3.68%Experian Group (EXPN) 650.00p +2.60%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,136.00p +2.07%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,204.00p +1.90%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,967.00p +1.55%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,151.00p +1.41%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,485.00p +1.23%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,288.00p +1.18%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,445.00p +0.91%Amec (AMEC) 880.50p +0.86%FTSE 100 - FallersInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,136.00p -2.07%National Grid (NG.) 488.70p -1.69%Aviva (AV.) 350.90p -1.40%Aggreko (AGK) 1,588.00p -1.37%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 582.00p -1.36%Capita Group (CPI) 758.00p -1.24%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,059.00p -1.12%Barclays (BARC) 310.05p -1.12%Old Mutual (OML) 114.50p -0.95%TUI Travel (TT.) 226.40p -0.92%