London open: Retailers lead fallers
London’s blue chips are slightly lower after the open on Tuesday with Tesco and Game among the main fallers after the retailers updated the market.Supermarket giant Tesco is leading the FTSE 100 fallers despite reporting strong sales in the third quarter as its Clubcard reward scheme helped it draw in customers and it continued to benefit from increasing non-food sales.
UK like-for-like sales excluding petrol and VAT were up by 2.8%, in line with analyst expectations. New stores in the UK contributed 2.9% to growth, bringing total sales growth excluding petrol to 5.7%.
Meanwhile, video game retailer Game is the worst FTSE 250 performer after it said it approaches the key Christmas shopping season cautiously and has seen softer than expected sales of some software releases. The group also reiterated its gross margin guidance for an increase of between 170 to 220 basis points over the prior year.
Also influencing the sector are the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium indicating that shoppers remained cautious last month with like-for-like sales were well down on the previous month.
Mining giant Xstrata is to take charges of nearly $2.5bn this year after restructuring its copper, zinc and nickel operations in Canada and Australia. In Canada, it will take a $375m charge for the permanent closure of its copper and zinc metallurgical plants at the Kidd Metallurgical site in Timmins next May, which is part of a plan to restructure its Canadian metallurgical operations.
Kosmos Energy, Tullow Oil's operating partner on the West Cape Three Points Block, offshore Ghana, has reported another encouraging test drilling.
Plastics group Victrex saw profits slide in the year to 30 September as demand slumped but said it had successfully cut costs while maintaining growth prospects, leaving it well placed to benefit from the upturn.
Domino Printing revealed an 11% increase in annual pre-tax profit and raised its dividend after a series of cost cutting measures.
Van hire group Northgate reported a drop in half year pre-tax profits but said it looks forward with increased confidence.
Intermediate Capital, an investor in and manager of buyout debt, said a Ł68m capital gain will be realised as a result of the sale of its equity and mezzanine investments in Marken Group.
Italian restaurant chain Carluccio’s posted a fall in profits in the year to September 30 as customers felt the pinch of the economic crisis, but said it had seen signs of improved consumer confidence in recent weeks.
Care home operator Southern Cross expects to resume dividend payments next year, despite posting another big loss in the year to September.
Wireless equipment tester Anite reported a sharp drop in half year pre-tax profit as customers continued to tighten their budgets but said it was trading in line for the full year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Pearson (PSON) 872.00p +2.11%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 559.50p +1.91%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,002.00p +1.11%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,212.00p +1.01%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,882.00p +0.97%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 54.20p +0.95%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 605.50p +0.92%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tesco (TSCO) 426.10p -2.19%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 99.20p -1.78%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,053.00p -1.77%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 889.00p -1.39%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,884.50p -1.36%
Man Group (EMG) 321.60p -1.11%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,476.50p -1.07%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 285.80p +3.59%
Yell Group (YELL) 43.83p +2.00%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,738.00p +1.78%
Domino Printing (DNO) 299.50p +1.77%
Lamprell (LAM) 188.00p +1.62%
St James's Place (STJ) 241.60p +1.47%
Computacenter (CCC) 269.70p +1.39%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Game Group (GMG) 128.40p -11.20%
Northgate (NTG) 230.40p -4.52%
DSG International (DSGI) 35.46p -3.43%
Melrose Resources (MRS) 300.50p -3.06%
John Wood Group (WG.) 301.50p -2.71%
Victrex (VCT) 812.50p -2.46%
HMV Group (HMV) 112.00p -2.10%
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