London open: Weak start for Footsie

22nd Mar 2010 08:43

London has pulled back from last week's 21-month high after Wall Street's eight-day winning streak ended Friday.Royal Dutch Shell is in the news, after Australian coal bed methane producer Arrow Energy agreed to a raised bid worth A3.4bn (£2.06bn) bid from the UK oil giant and partner PetroChina.The pair are now offering A$4.70 a share in cash for Arrow's Australian assets plus one share in a new listed company to be called Dart Energy. Dart will contain Arrow's Asian exploration assets. The original offer was worth A$4.45 a share.Inter-dealer broker ICAP has decided to close elements of its cash equities business after conducting a broad ranging strategic review. As a result, the group will no longer offer an integrated full service agency cash equities business, including research, in Europe and Asia. Currently these businesses employ 114 staff who will be affected by this decision. Building supplies group Wolseley is still finding the going tough, although half year losses narrowed sharply and the rate of like for like revenue decline continued to slow. It lost £261m in the six months to 31 January, less than the £464m deficit reported a year ago. The loss before exceptional items shrank to £7m from £344m. Smiths Interconnect, a division of technology firm Smiths Group, announced the $185m all-cash purchase of Kansas City-based Interconnect Devices Inc. (IDI) from private equity firm Milestone Partners.Gulfsands Petroleum has agreed to acquire working interest positions in two exploration permits in Tunisia (Chorbane and Kerkouane Permits) and one exploration permit in Southern Italy from AuDAX Resources. Cable & Wireless Communications has started trading after the first stage of the demerger. Cable & Wireless Worldwide starts tradinfg on 26 March. Irn Bru maker AG Barr reported a 21% jump in full-year pre-tax profits and said current trading is ahead of the same period last year. Profit on ordinary activities before tax and exceptional items increased to £27.9m in the year ended 30 January from £23.1m last time. Turnover increased by 18.7% to £201.4m.Outsourced workplaces provider Regus saw full-year pre-tax profits plunge and said its outlook remains unclear. Pre-tax profit dropped to £86.9m in the year ended 31 December compared with £149.2m last time.