London open: Thumbs-up for Lloyds

8th Nov 2011 08:44

It has been a hectic morning for big company announcements, busy enough to distract traders from events in the Eurozone.Eight of the FTSE 100 companies have made trading updates already, while insurance giant Prudential is set to weigh in with his third quarter update at 9:00am.Part-nationalised lender Lloyds Banking said it made a profit before tax of £1,748m for the first nine months of the year on what it calls a "combined businesses" basis, which it believes provides more meaningful comparatives. On a statutory or "as reported" basis, the group made a loss before tax of £3,858m after making a £3.2bn provision earlier this year relating to possible claims relating to mis-selling of payment protection insurance. Total income (before volatility effects, the impact of liability management exercises and net losses on asset sales) decreased by 9% to £16,095 million, reflecting subdued lending demand, continued customer deleveraging and a lower banking net interest margin, the company said.Third quarter profit before tax tumbled to £644m from £820m in the second quarter on a combined businesses basis. The impairment charge for bad debts improved considerably, declining to £1.96bn from £2.81bn in the third quarter of last year.Retail bellwether Marks & Spencer saw like-for-like (LFL) sales (excluding value added tax) in the 26 weeks to October 1st rise 0.5% from a year earlier, with food sales up 2.1% on a LFL basis but general merchandise sales down 1.3%. Underlying profit before tax slipped to £315.2m from £348.6m last year. The interim dividend has been maintained at 6.2p.Associated British Foods, the foods group that also owns the Primark clothing chain, announced full-year revenue and pre-tax profits that were ahead of market expectations. Revenue was up 9% to £11.1bn, versus market expectations of £10.96m, while adjusted profits before tax edged up 1% to £835m, versus expectations of £802.2m. Mobile phone network colossus Vodafone saw profit before tax ease 2.8% to £6.64bn in the six months ended September 30th from £8.24bn the year before, on revenue that rose 4.1% to £23.5bn from £22.6bn last year.Holiday Inns owner InterContinental Hotels is finding the market hard to please. Pre-tax profits came in at £194m in the three months to the end of September, up from £126m the previous year. This was at the top end of analysts expectations, but the shares were punished in early trading, as traders picked up on chief executive Richard Solomons's comments about continued uncertainty in the economic environment. Property company Hammerson was happy to report that the occupancy level across its portfolio remains high, though it has dipped to 97.1% from the end-June figure of 97.2%.Oil giant Cairn Energy saw its share price rise 4% after it reported encouraging results from its five well exploration drilling campaign offshore Greenland. The drilling results do not look as if the wells are blockbusters, but after a disappointing and expensive drilling campaign so far, a small success or two is most welcome.An anti-depressant product made by Anglo-Swedish drugs titan AstraZeneca and US partner Targacept has failed to meet its initial target. FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 29.39p +6.14%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 341.70p +4.82%Man Group (EMG) 145.70p +3.11%Vodafone Group (VOD) 177.95p +2.95%Cairn Energy (CNE) 296.50p +2.92%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 22.80p +2.47%Prudential (PRU) 630.00p +1.94%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,271.00p +1.60%Schroders (SDR) 1,402.00p +1.59%ICAP (IAP) 368.30p +1.54%FTSE 100 - FallersInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,062.00p -3.01%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,913.50p -1.79%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 669.50p -1.40%Compass Group (CPG) 564.50p -0.88%Carnival (CCL) 2,187.00p -0.82%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 735.50p -0.81%Whitbread (WTB) 1,639.00p -0.43%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,425.00p -0.40%Hammerson (HMSO) 393.70p -0.33%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,564.00p -0.26%FTSE 250 - RisersSupergroup (SGP) 680.00p +4.29%Lamprell (LAM) 248.00p +3.29%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 165.10p +3.25%Spectris (SXS) 1,304.00p +3.08%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 237.50p +3.04%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 11.10p +2.87%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 262.50p +2.58%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 37.68p +2.45%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 41.07p +2.39%Pace (PIC) 68.90p +2.30%FTSE 250 - FallersNew World Resources A Shares (NWR) 486.40p -6.55%Perform Group (PER) 200.10p -4.85%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 178.10p -2.30%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 449.30p -2.28%Bankers Inv Trust (BNKR) 376.10p -2.01%BH Macro Ltd. EUR Shares (BHME) € 19.15 -1.79%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 155.30p -1.65%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.7 -1.60%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 477.90p -1.46%RPS Group (RPS) 184.40p -1.44%--jh