London midday: Stocks rise as poll date is confirmed

6th Apr 2010 12:14

With official confirmation of a May 6 election date now received the market is enjoying an end to the uncertainty, though sentiment is tempered by the prospect of a hung parliament. Petrofac is leading the market higher on its first day of trading since demerging its UK Continental Shelf assets int

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London open: Gains as Brown names the day

6th Apr 2010 08:52

With Gordon Brown expected to call an election for 6 May, election fever has gone into overdrive. Investors are more focused on resource plays this morning, though. Oil hit an 18-month high last night in New York as the good monthly jobs number last week encouraged more optimism on the US economy.

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London pre-open: Confident start expected

6th Apr 2010 07:40

With Prime Minister Gordon Brown expected to visit the Queen today to ask her to dissolve Parliament the market has put to one side concerns about the possibility that there will be no clear winner in a general election and looks set to resume after the Easter break in confident manner. Traders exp

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Findel's Chapman exits

6th Apr 2010 07:24

Home shopping and educational supplies group Findel confirmed that Keith Chapman has decided to step down as chairman and as a director of the company, effective immediately. "This decision follows the review referred to in the circular to Findel shareholders published July, which was led by Keith

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Small caps round-up: Churchill, COE, Stratex...

29th Mar 2010 13:12

Indonesian-focused coal miner Churchill Mining narrowed pre-tax losses to $3m or 3.91c per share in the half-year ended 31 December from $13.8m or 20.61c per share. CCTV developer and supplier COE Group reported a 37% drop in first-half revenues, but said it expects revenues to grow over the seco

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Findel like-for-like sales fall 3%

28th Jan 2010 08:21

Home shopping group Findel saw sales in the 39 weeks to January 1 rise by 3% from the same period the previous year, helped by its acquisition of the home entertainment product supplier Webb Group. However, the Kleeneze owner said like-for-like sales were down by 3% from the same period the previou

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Small caps round-up: Max Property, Findel, SciSys

3rd Dec 2009 13:35

Max Property has increased its net asset value to 103p a share since floating on AIM in May. Nick Leslau's property investment company made its first acquisition of a portfolio of commercial properties in August. The placing in May raised £211.4m at 100p a share. The Industrious property portfolio

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Findel names new chief executive

30th Nov 2009 14:50

Home shopping and educational supplies group Findel announces the appointment of Philip Maudsley as its new chief executive. Patrick Jolly will step down as chief executive and as a director of the company and will leave the group at the end of the current financial year. Maudsley has been with t

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Findel lfl sales down 5%

22nd Sep 2009 07:23

Home shopping and educational supplies group Findel said like for like sales from continuing operations for the first 23 weeks of the financial year are 5% below the same period last year. It added that it Education Supplies division continues to experience difficult trading conditions, "caused pr

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Findel open offer proves popular

11th Aug 2009 08:01

Home shopping business Findel has raised the £81m it was after as investors snapped up over 97% of the shares allocated to them via an open offer. The company announced last month that it wanted the money to speed up its debt reduction plan and enter into cheaper and less restrictive bank facilitie

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London close: Ten out of ten for Footsie

24th Jul 2009 17:13

The FTSE 100 index made it ten days of rises in a row, despite tailing off towards the close as investors looked to bank profits ahead of the week-end. It capped the best rally by the blue-chip index in five years. The rise was achieved despite dismal gross domestic product data. UK output contract

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London afternoon: Financials find favour

24th Jul 2009 14:11

Footsie eased back a little over the lunchtime session but thanks to firm financials the blue-chip index continues to shrug off this morning's gloomy data on gross domestic product (GDP). UK output contracted 0.8% between April and June after a 2.4% decline in the first quarter, according to the Of

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Findel raising £81m to reduce debt

24th Jul 2009 13:21

Findel, home shopping and education supplies businesses, said it is raising £81m via a placing and open offer to reduce debt. The group said it will issue 200m new shares through the firm placing and 204m through a placing and open offer at 20p each. The issue price represents a discount of 51.5% t

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London afternoon: Equities continue upward drift

22nd May 2009 14:08

The market remains in credit after yesterday's shake-out and while it is by no means a convincing rally, driven as it is largely by the strength of mining stocks, the hesitancy is probably dictated by the unwillingness of traders to carry large positions over the long week-end. Having been talked d

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Findel mulls cash call

22nd May 2009 10:59

Home shopping and educational supplies group Findel has given back all its gains of the past few weeks after admitting it's considering an equity issue. It also warned that the firm's underlying financial performance for the financial year to 3 April 2009 was at the lower end of expectations. Find

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