London open: Steady start for Footsie

16th Jun 2009 08:39

London's blue have made modest progress despite a tough day on Wall St yesterday with good figures from Tesco giving a boost.Property group's British Land and Hammerson are the best performers this morning, but it is Tesco's figures that catch the eye.Tesco's like-for-like sales growth came in at the top end of expectations, helped by a resumption of growth in non-food sales. Excluding petrol and VAT, UK LFL sales in the 13 weeks to the end of May rose 4.3% from a year earlier. Analysts predicted 3.5% to 4.3%. Recession bit hard into Whitbread's latest quarter with sales at Premier Inns tumbling as businessmen stopped travelling. Like-for-like sales in the 13 weeks to 28 May fell by 2.7% as Premier struggled. Total sales rose by 2.5%. Tullow Oil's Kigogole-3 exploration well in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 2 has found oil. The well encountered over 20 metres of net oil pay in two separate zones, with a 5 metre total net reservoir section above the 15 metre main reservoir interval. Mike Hussey, the managing director of the London portfolio of property giant Land Securities is to leave the company at the end of June. The company said the decision for Husssey to step down from the board and leave the company was by mutual agreement, following a major change in the strategic direction of the company. During the time Land Securities was preparing to split itself into three quoted companies Hussey had been lined up to be the chief executive of one of those companies, but the company has since abandoned its demerger plans.Full-year profit from health and sensor group Halma came in, as expected, towards the bottom end of forecasts, following weaker order intake during the second half. Profit before tax and amortisation of acquired intangibles on continuing operations rose to £79.1m in the 12 months to 28 March 2009, up from £72.8m a year ago. Kesa Electricals, best known in the UK for its Comet electricals stores, has confirmed it is in talks to sell off its Swiss operation. The company is in exclusive negotiations with Swiss electrical retailing chain FUST, which is interested in buying Kesa's Swiss operations for SF20m (£11.4m). Kesa said the sale will not result in a paper loss for the group.US focused oil group Nighthawk has scrapped the $10.9m deal to sell finance group San Severina a 20% working interest in the Jolly Ranch prospect in Colorado. Nighthawk said payment of the initial consideration was due by 15 June 2009 and no payment from San Severina had been received.