London midday: FTSE 100 stable after calm start

15th Aug 2011 12:21

Shares are holding onto their gains today amid much calmer trading than the volatility seen last week.In company news, international recruitment firm Michael Page is sharply lower. It made a flying start to 2011 but said profit growth in the banking sector has tailed off in the second half of the year. Profit tax before non-recurring items jumped 37.9% to £45.5m from £33.0m the year before. Peer Hays is lower in sympathy.Precision instrumentation and controls company Spectris is in demand after saying is to acquire Omega, a privately held US business providing measurement and control instrumentation services to industrial and academic customers, for $475m (£290m). Chief executive John O' Higgins also said that Spectris's trading has been in line with expectations since 15 July. Oil services group Hunting has also acquired a measurement-type company, snapping up US specialist precision machining services group Dearborn Precision Tubular Products for $83.5m (£51.1m).After just three months outsourcing and energy services firm MITIE had secured 85% if its budgeted revenues for the financial year, as at the end of June. The order book is at record levels and the pipeline of opportunities remains good, the company said.Rockhopper Exploration, the North Falkland Basin-based oil and gas firm, saw shares climb by 8% on Monday after new seismic data suggested that more oil could be found in its Sea Lion Main Complex (SLMC). Elsewhere in resources, miner Orogen Gold is down after saying it widened its losses in the first half of 2011, dropping £554,000 into the red. This compared with a loss of £435,000 in the first half of last year for the firm formerly known as Medavinci.Shares in Milestone Group took off after the digital marketing group said it had acquired rival Oil Productions for £600,000. Oil Productions, which is based near the so-called Silicon Roundabout area that hosts many internet-based companies, has worked with big name clients such as the BBC and the consumer goods giant Unilever. It developed the interaction design and technology for the "Fallen Angel" campaign for Unilever's Lynx deodorant. Cancer drug discovery business Sareum shot ahead after it said it had selected a "preclinical development candidate" from research into Chk1, a method of controlling a cancer cells' response to DNA damage. The candidate, when orally dosed, reduces cancer growth rates compared to treatment with the same dose of chemotherapeutic without the Chk1 inhibitor, Sareum said. Shares in drug efficiency modeller Physiomics jumped in sympathy with Sareum. Sareum and Physiomics last year signed an agreement for Physiomics to support Sareum's cancer drug joint research program with the ICR and cancer discovery group Cancer Research Technology.FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,808.00p +4.81%Amec (AMEC) 941.50p +3.98%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,947.00p +2.53%Standard Life (SL.) 206.30p +2.13%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,036.00p +2.07%Inmarsat (ISAT) 450.00p +2.04%John Wood Group (WG.) 569.50p +1.88%BP (BP.) 412.45p +1.88%Unilever (ULVR) 2,040.00p +1.80%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 263.90p +1.62%FTSE 100 - FallersBarclays (BARC) 182.05p -2.75%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 33.29p -1.55%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 26.11p -1.43%Sage Group (SGE) 254.00p -1.32%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 332.10p -1.07%Man Group (EMG) 196.40p -1.06%Kingfisher (KGF) 233.90p -0.97%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 582.50p -0.94%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 546.80p -0.91%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,586.00p -0.81%FTSE 250 - RisersNew World Resources A Shares (NWR) 605.00p +8.62%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 47.80p +7.58%Renishaw (RSW) 1,413.00p +5.84%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 224.00p +5.56%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 360.50p +5.41%Premier Foods (PFD) 15.00p +5.34%Spectris (SXS) 1,416.00p +4.97%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 350.20p +4.66%Soco International (SIA) 313.50p +4.15%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 147.80p +4.08%FTSE 250 - FallersMichael Page International (MPI) 354.40p -11.49%Home Retail Group (HOME) 136.30p -3.61%Travis Perkins (TPK) 808.00p -2.83%Lamprell (LAM) 324.10p -2.67%SIG (SHI) 112.20p -2.52%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 279.40p -2.41%SThree (STHR) 269.00p -2.39%Laird (LRD) 158.60p -2.04%Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 329.20p -2.02%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 113.50p -1.65%