London midday: IG up, ITE down

19th Jul 2011 12:11

Stocks remain modestly higher but traders have made up their minds about some of this morning's updates, sending stocks in both directions.Investors are taking a punt on IG Group after full year results came in ahead of expectations, with the spread-betting company continuing to bag new clients in spite of tough economic conditions. In the year to 30 May, adjusted pre-tax profits came in £163m, up by 3.4% from the previous year, ahead of IG's previous prediction of a 3% rise.ITE Group's share price is exhibiting weakness. The exhibitions and conferences firm benefited from the first time contributions from new events and a softer comparator last year to boost revenues by nearly 43% in the third quarter. Revenue for the three months ended 30 June grew to £79.4m, from £55.6m last year, helped by the biennial Moscow International Oil & Gas exhibition along with a first time contribution from the spring events of the recently acquired MVK and Krasnodar exhibition portfolios, the group said. Johnson Matthey is shining after sales and profits both registered double-digit percentage gains in the first quarter of the platinum refiner's fiscal year. "Johnson Matthey has made further good progress in the first quarter of 2011/12 with sales excluding precious metals (sales) up 12% to £617 million. Underlying profit before tax increased by 19% to £98.2 million, benefiting principally from higher demand for our products and operational leverage," said chairman Sir John Banham. London-based pub group Capital Pub Company has fallen into the arms of rival pub group Greene King, which has agreed to pay 235p a share for Capital. The agreed offer, which values Capital Pub at about £70m, is substantially ahead of the 200p rival London pubs group Fuller's was willing to stump up for the operator of more than 30 pubs in the London area.Nathan Bostock, seen as a potential successor to chief executive of Stephen Hester at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is to jump ship to fellow part-nationalised lender Lloyds Banking. Bostock will be leaving his job as Head of Restructuring & Risk at RBS to take up a new role as chief executive officer of Wholesale Banking at Lloyds Bank, though probably not until at least the end of February 2012.Real estate investment trust Land Securities said the outlook for development in London remains attractive while even the battered retail sector has its bright spots. "Retail demand has meant we have over the last few months also begun to step up our activity in retail development predominantly in edge of town locations and we now have a £275m, 1m square feet, pipeline of opportunities to meet the growing demand from food and fashion retailers for space," said Francis Salway, chief executive of Land Securities.FTSE 100 - RisersBarclays (BARC) 216.35p +4.19%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 42.98p +3.97%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 274.50p +3.58%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,997.00p +3.04%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,845.00p +2.84%BT Group (BT.A) 192.80p +2.77%WPP (WPP) 708.00p +2.61%John Wood Group (WG.) 697.00p +2.42%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,330.00p +2.15%Man Group (EMG) 235.90p +2.12%FTSE 100 - FallersAutonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,708.00p -1.27%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,577.50p -1.19%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,743.00p -1.15%British Land Co (BLND) 599.00p -0.91%Diageo (DGE) 1,224.00p -0.81%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,063.00p -0.58%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,137.00p -0.51%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,329.50p -0.41%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 603.00p -0.41%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,208.50p -0.32%FTSE 250 - RisersIG Group Holdings (IGG) 436.80p +6.17%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 139.60p +5.52%Regus (RGU) 105.60p +4.55%Perform Group (PER) 211.80p +4.33%Henderson Group (HGG) 154.30p +3.49%Petropavlovsk (POG) 829.00p +3.43%Logica (LOG) 118.70p +3.13%Betfair Group (BET) 634.50p +3.09%Debenhams (DEB) 65.75p +3.06%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 140.80p +2.77%FTSE 250 - FallersITE Group (ITE) 227.30p -2.86%Rank Group (RNK) 150.20p -2.28%Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 246.40p -2.14%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,900.00p -1.83%Exillon Energy (EXI) 422.60p -1.74%SThree (STHR) 383.40p -1.69%Sports Direct International (SPD) 248.30p -1.47%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 502.50p -1.37%Berkeley Group Holdings (BKG) 1,228.00p -1.29%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 331.80p -1.22%