London open: Miners on the rise

24th Aug 2009 08:21

Miners are leading the way in early dealings on Monday, with silver miner Fresnillo the best performer.Fresnillo is up almost 3%, with Eurasian Natural Resources, Randgold Resources and BHP Billiton also going well.Oil services group Petrofac lifted its dividend for the six months to June 30 as revenues and profits rose in spite on the sharp drop in oil prices from the same period the previous year. Distribution and outsource specialist Bunzl reported a rise in interim pre-tax profits but warned that the challenging economic environment will continue to put pressure on underlying sales and profitability. Housebuilder Bovis saw profits drop sharply in the half year due to the adverse impact from significantly lower home sales prices, though private legal completions grew by 18%. Chemicals company Yule Catto expects full-year results to be slightly ahead of expectations after a solid first half. Underlying profit before tax, which excludes certain items, rose by 14% to £19.9m in the six months to 30 June 2009 from £17.4m in the first half of last year.Engineer and construction contractor Balfour Beatty has bagged a road building contract in Fort Worth, Texas. Its US civil engineering subsidiary has been selected to work on phase four of the State Highway 161 Tollway project. Defence technology group QinetiQ has secured a AUS$23m contract from the Australian Department of Defence for TALON robots and replacement parts to support Australian Defence Forces deployed on operations.Under siege oil and gas company Venture Production has announced farm-in agreements with two companies on some of its acreage in the southern North Sea.Power systems developer Rolls-Royce has won two more contracts from PetroChina relating to the West to East Gas Pipeline Project (WEPP).FDM Group has received a a revised proposal from its management team that may or may not lead to an offer for the IT services business at 135 pence per share.