London open: Stocks move higher

26th May 2011 08:29

Shares have edged higher following an improvement on Wall Street after London closed yesterday.Among the risers is Man Group whose adjusted profit before tax rose to $599m in the year to 31 March from $560m the year before, ahead of company guidance. Statutory profit before tax tumbled to $324m from $541m. However, even this was ahead of previous guidance (of $280m) after strong investment performance in the last week of March and an adjustment to the GLG acquisition balance sheet. Strong sales of non-clothing items such as leather handbags helped the luxury fashion group Burberry to a sharp rise in sales in the year to 31 March. Adjusted pre-tax profit rose by 39% from the previous year to £298m on revenue that climbed by 27% to £1.5bn. The full-year dividend has been increased by 43% to 20p. Despite the strong figures, Burberry, which also announced plans to ramp up capital expenditure, is lower.Qinetiq is on the attack after underlying profit before tax at the military research firm rose to £114.6m in the year to the end of March from £85.7m the year before. Revenue rose to £1.70bn from £1.63m the year before. Operating profit growth was driven by strong sales of the Q-NET vehicle survivability product. British American Tobacco is buying Colombia's second biggest cigarette company for $452m (£279m). The acquisition of Productora Tabacalera de Colombia (Protabaco) will elevate the Lucky Strike firm from third to second place in the cigarette market in Colombia, where 17bn cigarettes are sold a year. Protabaco sold 5.5bn cigarettes in 2010.Daily Mail publisher DMGT is down after reporting a rise in full-year pre-tax profits, to £121m from £102m but warning that the UK consumer media outlook remains "volatile and uncertain." Advertising revenues for April and the first three weeks of May have been below last year at the consumer businesses.