London midday: New highs for FTSE 100

6th Jan 2011 12:12

The top share index is posting gains for the third day in a row and is trading at levels not seen since May 2008.Gold miner Randgold leads the mining sector higher as the price of gold stabilises. Vedanta Resources and Xstrata are the other stand-out stocks in the sector.It is chip designer ARM that is the best performing blue-chip, however, adding to yesterday's strong gains. Fading US technology giant Microsoft confirmed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it is planning a new operating system for handheld tablet computers and smartphones that use ARM's chip designs. The decision represents a huge breakthrough for ARM. Traditionally, Microsoft has developed its operating systems to work with the chip design architecture of Intel, so much so that the Windows desktop environment is often referred to as "Wintel".Mother and baby retailer Mothercare today warned that it now expects full year underlying pre-tax profit to be below current market expectations after disappointing Christmas sales. UK like for like sales in the third quarter fell 5.8% as freezing temperatures kept would be shoppers at home. Greetings card specialist Clinton Cards has also pointed to the negative impact of wintery weather in the run-up to Christmas, warning that pre-tax profits for the year to July 31 are likely to fall short of current market expectations. Like-for-like sales fell by 2% from the same period a year ago at its UK stores in the five weeks to 2 January. Uncertainty in the retail sector has prompted McBride, which makes toothpaste and other household items for supermarkets to sell under their own labels, to warn that its full-year performance could be at the lower end of its expectations. The shares have taken a sharp dive. Growth in Central and Eastern Europe has been driving revenues higher but the UK has been very competitive, McBride said. This, "combined with our previously announced time-lag in cost recovery, leads the board to expect that trading profit for the first half will be around £20m," the company said. Household goods maker Reckitt Benckiser slides in sympathy.However, it's not all doom and gloom in the retail sector. Wine merchant Majestic Wine raised a glass to Britons' refusal to let the winter snowfall prevent them celebrating Christmas after reporting strong sales over the festive period. Total UK store sales, excluding VAT, were up 6.4% for the nine weeks of Christmas trading from 2 November 2010 to 3 January 2011. Over the same period, like for like UK store sales growth, excluding VAT, was 3.7%. Nichols, the soft drinks group behind the fruity beverage Vimto, expects profitability for the full year to be ahead of current market expectations after the strong performance of the first half continued into the second.There was further evidence of a newly confident airline industry as British Airways completed contracts with power systems developer Rolls-Royce, one of the FTSE 100's top risers today, for Trent 900 and Trent 1000 engines to power up to 61 new wide-body aircraft. The order was originally announced in September 2007 and is worth in excess of $5bn at list prices if all options are exercised. Recruitment giant Hays, another strong performer today, grew net fees by more than a fifth during its second quarter as rapid growth at the international business made up for a drab performance in the UK. Net fees on a like for like basis - organic growth at constant currency - was up 21% in the three months to 31 December, in line with expectations. The actual increase was 24%. Continental Europe & Rest of World led the way with a 37% surge, or 53% on an actual basis, followed by Asia Pacific, up 36%, or 33% actual. The UK & Ireland rose just 1%.Asia focussed oil company Salamander Energy is getting into position for its upcoming drilling programme in Thailand, although one of the drill rigs is currently being held up in Malaysia.Construction and engineering group Costain has returned to the table with what it terms "a significantly enhanced proposal" to take over contractor Mouchel. The new offer is on the basis of 0.5947 Costain shares for each Mouchel share, valuing each Mouchel share at about 135p.Heavy snow in December kept some film buffs away from Cineworld's cinemas, but the growing popularity of 3D animation films helped the company post a rise in sales over the full year.FTSE 100 - RisersARM Holdings (ARM) 510.50p +8.29%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 387.50p +3.33%Xstrata (XTA) 1,546.00p +3.10%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,240.00p +2.95%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 241.30p +2.64%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 1,102.00p +2.13%Diageo (DGE) 1,229.00p +2.08%Invensys (ISYS) 363.10p +2.05%BAE Systems (BA.) 348.80p +2.05%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 667.00p +1.99%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 1,635.00p -1.92%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,522.00p -1.51%Unilever (ULVR) 1,935.00p -1.02%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,633.00p -0.97%Essar Energy (ESSR) 569.50p -0.96%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,784.00p -0.94%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 594.50p -0.92%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 269.80p -0.81%Capita Group (CPI) 702.00p -0.78%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,575.00p -0.69%FTSE 250 - RisersAshtead Group (AHT) 173.40p +5.28%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 289.60p +5.16%Regus (RGU) 95.85p +4.24%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 34.16p +4.15%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 203.70p +3.35%Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 108.40p +3.24%Centamin Egypt Ltd. (CEY) 175.40p +3.12%CPP Group (CPP) 314.30p +3.05%ITV (ITV) 74.10p +2.92%SVG Capital (SVI) 226.90p +2.67%FTSE 250 - FallersMothercare (MTC) 558.50p -6.61%Mcbride (MCB) 173.50p -5.60%Grainger (GRI) 103.30p -3.91%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 341.00p -3.18%Debenhams (DEB) 72.00p -3.16%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,684.00p -3.10%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 840.00p -3.06%Elementis (ELM) 132.70p -2.93%Carillion (CLLN) 377.10p -2.71%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 585.00p -2.34%