London open: Healthy start for blue chips

13th Dec 2010 08:42

London has made decent progress in early dealings with oil services groups lifting the mood. Wood Group expects results this year to be slightly ahead of expectations. The Aberdeen-based firm saw continued progress at most of its key divisions. Its Engineering unit secured a number of awards during the year, as it order book continues to strengthen, the group said in a statement. Also in oilfield services, reports this morning suggest General Electric is poised to seal a £755m-plus takeover of Wellstream, the UK oil and gas services group. The deal is expected to be higher than 750p a share but less than 800p.Miners are in demand. ENRC, Kazakhmys and Xstrata are the best of the risers. Elsehwhere, British Airways is also going well. Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) has given short shrift to a proposal by David Simon, chairman and chief executive of US Mall owner Simon Property, that the US group subscribes to a sale of up to 205.5m of Capital Shopping shares priced at 400p each to fund the £1.6bn Trafford deal. "Completely impracticable," is CSC's response.De la Rue has appointed Tim Cobbold as chief executive and an executive director of the company, starting in January. He joins De La Rue from Chloride Group. His first job will be to see off the bid attentions of French group Oberthur.Yule Catto has roared ahead on an agreement to buy PolymerLatex for a total transaction value of €443m (£376m). A 4-3 rights issue to raise £225m will help pay for it.ITV shares picked up after reported bumper ad revenues for the final of X Factor, which was won by Matt Cardle.Mattress and sofa company Airsprung said sales for the six months ended 30 September 2010 fell by 12.8% as it struggled against a very difficult retail environment for beds and furniture.