London pre-open: Footsie little moved by big results

26th Jul 2011 07:50

Despite a gush of results from some index heavyweights, the blue-chip index is set to open barely changed. The rising price of oil and gas boosted BP's profits in the second quarter, though the benefits were partially offset by lower production as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant saw second quarter underlying profits of $5.6bn (£3.4bn) for the three month period, a 13% rise from the previous year.Chip designer ARM beat high expectations with its second quarter figures. The market had been expecting normalised EPS of 2.43p, but ARM delivered EPS of 2.98p, up 27% from 2.34p in the second quarter of 2010. Normalised profit before tax climbed 25% to £54.2m from £43.5m the year before. Revenue in dollar terms grew 27% to $190.2m from $150.3m a year earlier, but in sterling terms the rise was only 18%, to £117.8m from £100m.Oil and gas leviathan BG Group saw second quarter earnings per share jump 27% to 33.1 cents from 26.1 cents a year earlier. The interim divided has been hiked by 10% to 10.8 cents. --jh