London open: Footsie on rise again

29th Jul 2009 08:47

London is back on a rising trend after yesterday's blip that ended the eleven day upward streak. A partial recovery in the US last night that saw Wall Street end with just a small loss has helped the mood.Results have been mixed. Reckitt Benckiser demonstrated again that it lives in a different realm from other companies. The detergent maker posted profits and dividends up by a third and raised its estimates for both sales and earnings growth for the full year. Half-year profits rose by 40% and the dividend by 34%.BG Group is a rival to Reckitt in the stellar performer stakes but its second quarter profits fell 32% in the three months ended 30 June to £972m. It won't hit its 2009 production target of 680,000 boed until 31 March 2010, one quarter later than originally planned. Underlying profit before tax in the first half of 2009 at chocolate and gum maker Cadbury came in ahead of expectations, despite difficult trading in mainland Europe. Underlying profit before tax rose to £262m from £212m, up 24% in actual terms and 11% on a constant currency basis. Some brokers had been predicting a figure of around £255m.BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, has unsettled the miners after it agreed pricing terms with a number of iron ore customers for the 2009 contract year, with prices down by about a third on last year. The company has settled 23% of total iron ore volumes at an agreed annual contract price. Prices agreed upon for iron ore fines will be around 33% lower than the prices agreed in 2008. Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Kazakhmys are lower in sympathy. Rexam's well-flagged rights issue has been launched with the packaging giant looking to raise £351m at a big discount to the current share price. The interim dividend has also been scrapped. Terms of the cash call are 4 for 11 at 150p. First half losses of £30m compared to a profit of £140m last time.Budget airline easyJet expects to make a full-year profit of up to £50m after increasing revenue by 12% in the third quarter.