London midday: Winning streak in danger

7th Sep 2010 12:02

Footsie ended the morning making its second attempt of the day at a rally but the blue-chip index remains in negative territory and in danger of seeing its winning streak in September come to an end. Expectations of a lower start on Wall Street as the US returns to work after the Labour Day holiday are also souring sentiment. Banknote printer De La Rue is to take a £35m hit to its interim pre-tax profits as a result of the problems it encountered at one of the firm's paper production facilities. The company said this morning that some of its employees had been deliberately falsifying paper specification test certificates for banknotes. The shipment of affected banknote paper was immediately stopped when the irregularities were first identified back in July, and all production is now in line with specifications, it said.Barclays is lower after it confirmed Bob Diamond, head of its investment banking arm, Barclays Capital, will take over as chief executive when John Varley steps down at the end of March next year. Diamond, who has been running the investment banking division since 1997 when it was BZW, becomes president and deputy group chief executive at the beginning of next month.Tullow Oil is going well again after the vague bid talk yesterday that mentioned a £20 per share price. British Airways is also in demand as investors seemingly approve chief Willie Walsh's world domination plan. Costa Coffee and Premier Inns owner Whitbread said like for like (LFL) sales growth has accelerated since June. Year on year sales growth in the 24 weeks to 19 August was 7.9%, up from 7.6% in the 13 weeks to 3 June.Good sales of food through its managed outlets are keeping pub operator and brewer Greene King on track. After 18 weeks to 5 September, like-for-like sales at Greene King Retail were up by 4.4% and sales at Scottish arm Belhaven 3.3% ahead.Online grocery distributor Ocado's first figures since its troubled listing in July showed strong growth with gross sales up 29.5% to £126.5m for the 12 weeks to 8 August, though the size of the average order declined again. Equipment rental group Ashtead trumped the market's profit expectations handsomely in the first quarter of its financial year. Underlying profit before tax in the three months ended 31 July was £11.9m, up 35% (18% at constant exchange rates) from £8.8m in the company's first quarter of 2009. That figure beat the most optimistic broker forecast of £7.4m.Struggling social housing maintenance group Connaught has asked that its shares be suspended as its financial situation becomes ever more precarious. It doesn't think it will be able to prise additional funds from its lenders and, although it's still talking to other parties, admits "the ability to provide an adequate solution to the funding issues the group faces has become increasingly uncertain". Legacy software specialist Micro Focus has appointed former Morse chief executive Mike Phillips as its new Chief Financial Officer. Phillips replaces Nick Bray and starts at Micro Focus on 4 October. Office products wholesaler DS Smith has been trading in line with expectations in its new financial year with volume growth seen throughout the group. Reporting on trading since 1 May, the first quarter of the company's financial year, the company said volume growth has been led by its Fast Moving Consumer Goods section. Gem Diamonds has pulled another huge rough diamond from its Let?eng mine in Lesotho. The 196 carat rough white diamond was recovered on 24 August 2010. It is expected to achieve a substantial price per carat as preliminary examinations indicate it could produce top colour and top clarity polished diamonds, Gem said.Bob Lawson, non-executive chairman of Barratt Developments, has been named as the new non-executive chairman at animal genetics company Genus. He will succeed John Hawkins after the company's AGM in November. The company said this morning that underlying profit before tax rose 3% to £32.9m in the year to 30 June from £32.0m a year earlier, although on a constant exchange rates basis profits were flat.FTSE 100 - RisersInvensys (ISYS) 260.60p +3.99%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,214.00p +2.71%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,362.00p +2.18%British Airways (BAY) 224.00p +1.45%United Utilities Group (UU.) 592.00p +0.85%BAE Systems (BA.) 323.10p +0.19%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,362.00p +0.15%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 289.80p +0.14%Inmarsat (ISAT) 696.50p +0.14%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,069.00p +0.09%FTSE 100 - FallersMan Group (EMG) 226.80p -3.65%Barclays (BARC) 311.90p -3.39%Kingfisher (KGF) 211.50p -2.94%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 70.65p -2.89%Xstrata (XTA) 1,058.50p -2.80%Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 852.00p -2.68%ARM Holdings (ARM) 361.10p -2.56%Aggreko (AGK) 1,477.00p -2.38%TUI Travel (TT.) 216.20p -2.35%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,241.00p -2.13%