London open: Slow start to short week

26th May 2009 08:41

London has made a slow start to the week after the long weekend in both the UK and the US and with little blue chip news out today so far.Miners are the best performers again. Mining giant Rio Tinto is lower has agreed a 33% cut in contract fine iron ore prices with Japan's Nippon Steel Corp for the current shipping year, in a deal likely to set the benchmark for other settlements.The Japanese company had wanted a larger reduction and other miners have rallied a little led by a trio of base metal groups Kazakhmys, Xstrata and ENRC.Half-year losses have doubled at short break specialist Holidaybreak, but are in line with the firm's expectations. The pre-tax loss for the six months ended 31 March 2009 jumped to £36.6m from £18.2m a year ago on revenue down to £153.2m from £156m. The underlying loss tax grew to £18.1m from £14.9m.Hard times are driving people towards pawnbroker Albemarle & Bond with results for the year to June now predicted to be "significantly ahead of market expectations". The core pawwnbroker business has been boosted by the higher price of gold, which has enhanced the yield on unredeemed loans, A&B said.Spread betting firm IG Group said it expects rule changes being contemplated by the Financial Services Agency of Japan will probably only affect a minority of the group's Japanese clients, measured both by number of clients and by trading volume. Homeserve has extended its reach in continental Europe through the acquisition of electrical appliances warranty provider, Société Française de Garantie (SFG). The UK home emergency insurance cover specialist is paying April Group SA £24m for SFG, though as the acquired company had £6.9m in cash at the time of acquisition, the net cost of the acquisition is £17.1mAveva's profits surged forward again last year, but the computer aided designer cautioned that the slowdown in global shipping and oil markets is now having an impact on orders.Scottish soft drinks giant AG Barr has had an "excellent" start to its financial year, with like for like revenue in the first 15 weeks "well ahead" of the same time last year.