London open: Footsie opens lower after flurry of results

28th Jul 2011 08:34

After a flurry of company results this morning, the Footsie fell into the red. While investors digest the figures, in the back of their minds they are still fretting about the US debt ceiling negotiations, with the Republicans and Democrats set for a show-down later on today in the House of Representatives.Anglo-Dutch integrated oil company Royal Dutch Shell fell lower after it reported net income on a current cost of supplies (CCS) basis, excluding specific items, of $6.6bn, compared to $4.2bn in the second quarter of last year. The figure was in line with market estimates. Phone company BT was a high riser after pre-tax profits rose 20% in the first quarter. "Our super-fast broadband network has now passed over 5m premises and the customer base has almost trebled in the last six months," said chief executive Ian Livingston.Drugs giant AstraZeneca rose after despite seeing second quarter profit before tax slide 2%, or 4% on a constant exchange rates (CER) basis, to $2.86bn from $2.92bn the year before. Revenue rose 3% (but fell 2% on a CER basis) to $8.43bn from $8.18bn. Tate & Lyle, the food ingredients group famous for its sugar, was in demand after hailing an "encouraging start" to the year, with strong demand seen in its main two divisions, Bulk Ingredients and Speciality Food Ingredients.Rolls-Royce edged higher after it revealed record orders in the first half while profits jumped 28% to beat expectations, enabling the aerospace, power systems and defense group to up its payout to shareholders.Catering giant Compass fell despite organic revenues rising 4.5% to beat expectations. While the group is seeing "modest signs of recovery" in Japan, it has been able to limit the impact on profit to £20m in the second half after reducing costs. HSBC was lower following speculation that it could soon announce more than 10,000 job cuts, according to insiders at the bank cited by Sky News, with some of those redundancies coming from the head office. The above as part of the bank's efforts to improve its cost structure and return on equity.On the FTSE 250, speciality chemicals group Croda International was among the worst performers despite posting a 30% surge in half year profit, bolstered its dividend and expects to make further progress through the remainder of the year.BCFTSE 100 - RisersBAE Systems (BA.) 297.60p +1.74%BT Group (BT.A) 194.00p +1.73%Capita Group (CPI) 714.00p +1.28%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,504.00p +0.95%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,034.00p +0.80%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 618.00p +0.49%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 718.00p +0.49%Pearson (PSON) 1,132.00p +0.35%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,139.00p +0.28%Reed Elsevier (REL) 561.00p +0.27%FTSE 100 - FallersCarnival (CCL) 2,172.00p -2.47%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 230.40p -1.75%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 34.50p -1.46%Xstrata (XTA) 1,319.00p -1.42%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,390.00p -1.42%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,223.00p -1.29%Man Group (EMG) 225.50p -1.27%Amec (AMEC) 1,076.00p -1.19%Lonmin (LMI) 1,307.00p -1.13%Serco Group (SRP) 538.00p -1.10%