London open: Rig disaster weighs on BP

30th Apr 2010 08:56

London's top stocks have made only modest gains so far despite the big rise on Wall St overnight.BP and Barclays are weighing on the index. The oil spilling out of the damaged rig in the Gulf of Mexico is now starting to come ashore in Louisiana and the scale of disaster has sent BP shares lower again. Barclays is also lower even though a big surge in business at Barclays Capital and decline in impairments had profit 47% higher in the first quarter of 2010. Profit before tax from continuing operations leapt to £1.82bn from £1.24bn in the first three months of 2009. FT owner Pearson reports all parts of the company have made a good start to 2010 with first quarter revenues up 7% to £1.08bn or by 12% on a constant currency basis. Advertising giant WPP said a stabilisation and subsequent growth in revenue came earlier than expected. Reported revenues were £2.078 billion in the first quarter, down just under 2% from last year. Dairy groups are higher after the OFT climbed down in its long-running and acrimonious price-fixing investigation. Fines have been reduced, Morrisons exonerated and most charges dropped against Tesco.Rentokil has proved quite a catch over the past 12 months and business continued to improve in the first quarter when profit grew faster than analysts expected. The pest control giant posted a profit before one-off items of £30.4m for the first three months of 2010, 41% more than the year before and up 38% on the fourth quarter of 2009. Trading at Davis Service Group has been in line with expectations in the first quarter with revenues broadly in line with the corresponding period of 2009. The laundry and workwear group said that, as expected, operating margins have improved as the effects of the cost cutting programme kick in.Gulfsands Petroleum has again rejected the 315p a share bid proposal from Oil India Limited and Indian Oil Corporation, first made last month and reiterated again earlier this week. Blacks Leisure has resurrected its £20m fund raising plan after its previous attempt was scuppered by rival and 28.5% shareholder Sports Direct. The proposed placing, open offer and firm placing will raise approximately £19.7m at 54p.