London open: Early gains fizzle out

28th Sep 2009 08:47

London's blue-chip have started the week hesitantly desite a rally by Wolseley on hopes its fortunes may have bottomed.Builders' supplies specialist Wolseley racked up losses of more than £1bn last year after a raft of one-off charges. Ongoing pre-tax losses came in at £766m in the year to July, against a profit of £399m, as the company took write-downs of £595m and restructuring costs of a further £464m. Profit before tax, exceptional items and amortisation and impairment of acquired intangibles reduced by 54% to £293m (2008: £631m), slightly above market forecasts. Drugs company AstraZeneca has won another round in its long-running fight against generic competition to bipolar treatment Seroquel. A US appeal court upheld its infringement claim against Sandoz and Teva Pharmaceutical over Seroquel tablets. Autonomy, the provider of infrastructure software for large companies, has entered into a multi-million dollar licence agreement with US drugs giant Pfizer, which will use Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer software.Kesa Electricals, owner of the Comet consumer electronics and white goods store, has appointed Dominic Platt, currently group financial controller at Cable & Wireless, as its new finance director. Platt will join the company as an executive director in early January 2010.Scottish and Southern Energy expects adjusted profit before tax for the six months ending 30 September to be significantly higher than the corresponding period in 2008, when it was exceptionally low. For the year as a whole, SSE expects to deliver a moderate increase in adjusted profit before tax; and an increase in the dividend per share of at least 4% more than inflation. The business to business arm of online gaming group 888 Holdings has signed an exclusive agreement with Tsogo Sun Gaming Group (TSG), one of the largest hotel and entertainment groups in South Africa. 888's Dragonfish unit will provide total gaming services for TSG's initial foray into online gaming through a joint venture to be set up in South Africa.Indonesian-focused coal miner Churchill Mining has confirmed three approaches over deals, including one full takeover offer, but has denied any of these involve mining giant BHP Billiton. Churchill, which put out the statement after a surge in its share price recently, said it had received three separate and unconnected non-binding approaches, all of which are at various stages.