London open: Transatlantic lift for Footsie

29th Sep 2010 08:51

London has opened handily ahead after the decent close on Wall Street overnight.In company news, British Airways has finally signed its well-flagged transatlantic ticketing and revenue share agreement with American Airlines and merger partner Iberia. It starts in October and is worth a combined $7bn in annual revenues. Smiths Group has ramped up full-year headline profit by 17% and is delivering on its cost savings ahead of plan, but the diversified high-tech group warns that growth in both sales and profit will be slower this year.Miners are the main fallers alongside the normal Wednesday ex-dividends, which this time includes Drax and Inmarsat. Fast growing pizza delivery franchise operator Domino's Pizza has not been growing quite so fast in the last three months but still notched up an enviable increase in like for like (LFL) sales. In the 13 weeks to 26 September LFL sales were 9.9% higher than a year earlier, while in the year to date LFL sales were up 12.5% on a year earlier.Energy supplier Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has assured the market it is on course to deliver on its pledge of above-inflation dividend increases. Rail and bus operator FirstGroup is currently trading in line with management expections and is on track to deliver moderate earnings growth target for the full year. Earnings have benefitted from a mix of contract-backed and passenger revenue operations in the UK and North America.Volumes traded through the London Stock Exchange have slowed recently in conditions described as variable. Average UK daily shares traded increased 9% year-on-year to £5bn in the five months to August, though trading volumes since June have been much lower at an average £4.2bn per day, the LSE said.Misys shareholders should get their split of the Allscripts sale proceeds in November, the financial software provider confirmed today as it flagged a pretty flat first quarter. The return of £780m made from the sale of healthcare division Allscripts, completed last month, will be returned to investors via a tender offer, expected during November. Misys has kept a 10% stake.Engineering support services company Babcock International said current pressures on spending will slow short-term revenue growth but its order book and bid pipeline remain strong.