London open: Stocks stage partial recovery

19th Jul 2011 08:30

Stocks are edging higher after a tough day yesterday when concerns over European and US sovereign debt sent traders rushing for the exits.Sales and profits at Johnson Matthey, a top riser in the FTSE 100 today, both registered double-digit percentage gains in the first quarter of the platinum refiner's fiscal year. "Johnson Matthey has made further good progress in the first quarter of 2011/12 with sales excluding precious metals (sales) up 12% to £617 million. Underlying profit before tax increased by 19% to £98.2 million, benefiting principally from higher demand for our products and operational leverage," said chairman Sir John Banham. London-based pub group Capital Pub Company has fallen into the arms of rival pub group Greene King, which has agreed to pay 235p a share for Capital. The agreed offer, which values Capital Pub at about £70m, is substantially ahead of the 200p rival London pubs group Fuller's was willing to stump up for the operator of more than 30 pubs in the London area.Nathan Bostock, seen as a potential successor to chief executive of Stephen Hester at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), is to jump ship to fellow part-nationalised lender Lloyds Banking. Bostock will be leaving his job as Head of Restructuring & Risk at RBS to take up a new role as chief executive officer of Wholesale Banking at Lloyds Bank, though probably not until at least the end of February 2012.Real estate investment trust Land Securities said the outlook for development in London remains attractive while even the battered retail sector has its bright spots. "Retail demand has meant we have over the last few months also begun to step up our activity in retail development predominantly in edge of town locations and we now have a £275m, 1m square feet, pipeline of opportunities to meet the growing demand from food and fashion retailers for space," said Francis Salway, chief executive of Land Securities.IG Group's full year results have come in a shade of expectations, with the spread-betting company continuing to bag new clients in spite of tough economic conditions. In the year to 30 May, adjusted pre-tax profits came in £163m, up by 3.4% from the previous year, ahead of IG's previous prediction of a 3% rise. FTSE 100 - RisersBarclays (BARC) 214.85p +3.47%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,986.00p +2.48%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 42.27p +2.24%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 269.90p +1.85%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,325.00p +1.77%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 755.00p +1.62%ARM Holdings (ARM) 578.00p +1.58%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,323.00p +1.55%Old Mutual (OML) 127.40p +1.51%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 225.80p +1.44%FTSE 100 - FallersBritish Land Co (BLND) 599.00p -0.91%United Utilities Group (UU.) 579.50p -0.26%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,768.00p -0.25%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,077.00p -0.19%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,425.00p -0.14%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,536.00p -0.13%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 593.00p -0.08%National Grid (NG.) 598.00p -0.08%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,729.00p -0.06%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,334.50p -0.04%FTSE 250 - RisersSt. Modwen Properties (SMP) 186.50p +4.25%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 136.10p +2.87%Henderson Group (HGG) 152.90p +2.55%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 242.90p +2.49%Perform Group (PER) 208.00p +2.46%Betfair Group (BET) 630.00p +2.36%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 521.00p +2.26%Petropavlovsk (POG) 819.00p +2.18%Logica (LOG) 117.50p +2.09%Exillon Energy (EXI) 438.80p +2.02%FTSE 250 - FallersDunelm Group (DNLM) 450.00p -3.39%Kier Group (KIE) 1,299.00p -1.74%TUI Travel (TT.) 175.20p -1.68%Carpetright (CPR) 577.00p -1.54%Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 280.60p -1.30%Senior (SNR) 182.00p -0.93%Kofax (KFX) 482.70p -0.90%Home Retail Group (HOME) 135.70p -0.88%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 261.80p -0.83%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 15.76p -0.82%---RG