London open: Footsie up despite M&S disappointment

19th May 2009 08:48

Footsie has built on yesterday's gains as traders wade through the continuing stream of company results.Marks & Spencer has fallen sharply after it revealed a final dividend cut of a third after the clothes and food retailer saw a sharp drop in pre-tax profits to £706.2m from £1.13bn. M&S said it will rebase its dividend payment to 15p a share from the current 22.5p.Package tour giant TUI Travel saw operating losses widen at the interim stage, due to the weakness of sterling and the timing of Easter this year. The company said that current trading has continued to improve, with cumulative bookings for the summer season in line with expectations.Heavy one-off charges, principally in Spain and Turkey, slashed mobile phone Vodafone's annual profit, though the underlying numbers met forecasts. Group revenue for the year to March rose 15.6% to £41bn, and on a pro forma basis by 1.3%.Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are up on a report that the government may want to sell on its holdings in the pair.Dairy Crest, the firm behind Cathedral cheese and Country Life butter, will cut future dividends by 25% to preserve cash. Adjusted pre-tax profits for the year to March 31 fell to £79.5m from £86m even as revenues climbed to £1.65bn from £1.57bn.Inter-dealer broker ICAP saw record revenue and profit last year, helped by successful acquisitions. Revenue in the year to 31 March 2009 rose 23% to £1,601m from £1,304m the year before, while pre-tax profit rose 2% to £281m from £275m.Tate & Lyle has appointed Javed Ahmed from Reckitt Benckiser as its new chief executive. He will take over from current incumbent Iain Ferguson on 15 November.