London midday: Marks sparks rally

1st Jul 2009 12:06

A well received set of results from Marks & Sparks and the strength of miners drives London higher today.Marks and Spencer's like-for-like sales fell across its major divisions in the first quarter, though total group sales were up. In the 13-weeks to June, UK like for like sales fell 1.4%, General Merchandise slipped 2.4% and Food was down 0.5%, but the figures were better than feared and the shares are up. Next is higher in sympathy. Miners are going strongly led by Vedanta, ENRC, Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Kazakhmys. Latin America-focused miner Hochschild is sharply higher after increasing its ownership in Gold Resource Corporation, a US OTC traded underground precious metals mining company, to 23.9%.Power generator International Power is to offload its Czech operations to Czech-Slovak investment firm J&T Group for CZK 22.5bn (£738.3m).Bus and rail group National Express is the big faller on the day after it handed back the East Coast franchise to the Department for Transport after failing to renegotiate terms. The service will now be nationalised until a new franchisee is found. National Express, which also confirmed the departuure of chief executive Richard Bowker, will not be considered ever again for a franchise, said the government.Legacy software group Micro Focus has upped its cash offer for Borland for a second time to see off a potential rival bidder. Micro Focus is now offering $1.50 cash for each outstanding share of Borland Software Corporation, which values it, on a fully diluted basis, at approximately $113m.Energy services provider John Wood Group said performance in the year to date remains in line with expectations. The group said although the oil price has strengthened over recent weeks, market conditions remain broadly similar to those outlined in May.Oil service firm Hunting said should current market conditions and commodity prices prevail, trading throughout the remainder of the year will be challenging.AstraZeneca has received EU marketing approval for its lung cancer treatment Iressa four years after its was withdrawn from use after disappointing trial data.Brewing company SABMiller is to give a 10% stake in its South African subsidiary to agencies representing the black community in South Africa.Lloyds Banking eases back after Credit Suisse cut its price target for the stock from 55p to 50p. Fellow Swiss bank UBS has cooled on home insurance group Homeserve, cutting its rating from "buy" to "neutral".Engineer and construction contractor Balfour Beatty said its joint venture company Gammon Construction has won a contract for the redevelopment of the Hennessy Centre in Hong Kong.Morgan Sindall, the construction and regeneration company, said it is on course to meet management's expectations for the full year, despite continued tough trading conditions in some of its markets.FTSE 100 - RisersVedanta Resources (VED) 1,403.00p +8.93%International Power (IPR) 251.50p +5.67%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 688.50p +5.19%Xstrata (XTA) 691.30p +5.17%FTSE 100 - FallersMan Group (EMG) 261.75p -5.68%3i Group (III) 237.25p -1.96%Pearson (PSON) 601.50p -1.31%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.30p -0.90%