London midday: Water companies keep Footsie afloat

27th May 2009 12:10

The Footsie is barely keeping its head above water, despite expectations of a moderately firm start on Wall Street.Water companies receive a boost ahead of the sector's results season which starts this week, with Credit Suisse claiming the sector's rally is set to continue. The Swiss bank has upgraded Northumbrian Water from 'neutral' to 'outperform' and Severn Trent from 'underperform' to 'neutral'.Mexico-based silver miner Fresnillo reports a strong start to 2009, with silver production up 9% on last year and stable gold production. Tullow Oil said the Awaka-1 exploration well, located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2, has been plugged and abandoned after only encountering water bearing reservoir sands. ITV is going well after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from 'sell' to 'buy' and added it to its 'conviction buy' list. The US bank has been prompted by more positive macro data to lift its 2010 earnings forecast for the European media sector by 23% on average. Elsewhere in the sector Daily Mail and General Trust and Aegis receive a boost from the Goldman Sachs research.Recent rights issuer Great Portland Estates has terminated £190m of interest rate derivatives at a cost of £18.2m. The transaction results in a reduction in the weighted average interest rate from 5.2% to 2.9% on current net debt levels. The stock trades lower today in ex-div form.Plant hire group Speedy Hire posted a sharp widening in losses in the year to 31 March and said trading in the new financial year is more difficult than anticipated. The firm reported pre-tax losses of £70.6m, compared with £30.5m the previous year. Plumbing supplies group BSS shrugged off tough conditions to post pre-tax profits that barely fell from the previous year despite extremely difficult conditions. Informa said 96.82% of the business publisher's shareholders have subscribed to its rights issue. Biscuits, pizzas and Christmas puddings maker Northern Foods held its dividend as sales last year rose and underlying profits came in slightly better than gloomy predictions.Retailer Topps Tiles' profits slumped barely to above break-even in the half year to March as sales continued to slide. Pre-tax profits tumbled from £15.8m to £0.6m as overall revenue decreased by 13.4% to £92.1m compared with last year's £106.3m). Like-for-like revenues fell by 18.5%.Soft drinks maker Britvic has lost its fizz on reports that a major shareholder has offloaded its near 14% stake in the company. UBS is said to have placed 30m shares at around 265.5p in the Chelmsford based drinks firm.Camera retailer Jessops said shareholders are unlikely to realise any value from their equity as talks continue with their lenders and as it reports a fresh deterioration in sales.Elsewhere in the retail sector Marks & Spencer and Next are lower after going ex-div but Argos and Homebase group Home Retail Group is in demand, as is fellow DIY retailer Kingfisher, on the day the British Bankers' Association reported that mortgage approvals rose, albeit modestly, in April.Defence stock Cobham is another stock weighed down by ex-div status.Gearbox designer Torotrak is stuck in reverse, despite narrowed pre-tax losses for the year on turnover that jumped 25%.The market has given an enthusiastic response to the release of a technical evaluation report on Hardy Oil and Gas's D3 and D9 exploration licences in the Krishna Godavari Basin.'The report confirms the significant hydrocarbon potential of our exploration assets in the emerging world class petroleum system of the Krishna Godavari Basin in India,' said Hardy's chief executive, Sastry Karra.Avanti Communications has agreed a deal with the European Commission worth €600,000 over three years to provide satellite communications technology for ports, lorry parks and terminals in the North Sea. Recruitment group Synergy has signed a minimum two year contract worth £124,000 with Bond International Software to implement the recruitment software application Adapt. Engineering group Kentz has won a 'multi-million dollar' contract to undertake electrical, instrumentation and telecommunications work on a gas storage and loading facility in Qatar owned by a subsidiary of Qatar Petroleum. Fuel cell group Proton Power Systems' subsidiary Proton Motor GmbH has signed a five-year agreement with outsourcing group Deutsche Mechatronics GmbH to produce fuel cells in Germany.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 249.50p +5.16%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,190.00p +4.48%Home Retail Group (HOME) 236.50p +4.42%Old Mutual (OML) 72.30p +3.14%FTSE 100 - FallersNext (NXT) 1,427.00p -3.39%Cobham (COB) 181.30p -2.63%Compass Group (CPG) 360.25p -2.44%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,575.00p -2.05%