Market Market Open Report -Thu, May 13, 2010

London’s top stocks are on the rise in early dealings on Thursday, tracking triple-digit gains on Wall Street last night and a rally in Asia.

Global markets appear more optimistic about Europe’s ability to sort out the region’s debt problems and the receding threat of a crisis spreading to the global economy. Spain is the latest to announce austerity measures.

There’s also lots of domestic company news to digest.

BT is the strongest riser on news that telecoms giant returned to the black in the last quarter and the full year and reported a 6% rise in the dividend. Pre-tax profit hit Ł1.01bn in the year to 31 March versus a loss of Ł244m before. In the final quarter, pre-tax profit came to Ł251m compared with a loss of Ł1.31bn previously. FY revenue fell slightly to Ł20.91bn. For 2010/11, revenue is seen at around Ł20bn and operating cost savings of around Ł900m.

Private equity group 3i is also going well after the group saw a 15% return on its portfolio in the year to March 31 as the companies it invests in participated in the strong rally that followed the economic collapse of the previous year.

Supermarket Sainsbury’s posted a rise in sales and profits in the year to March 20 and said it was confident of further progress despite expectations of a challenging consumer spending environment. Underlying pre-tax profit of Ł610m was slightly ahead of expectations and up from Ł519m a year ago. Sales rose to Ł21.4bn from Ł20.4bn and grew 4.3% on a like-for-like basis excluding fuel.

South African insurer Old Mutual continued its momentum from the fourth quarter of 2009 into the current financial year, boosting Long-Term Savings (LTS) by 21% at the start of 2010. Total life assurance sales on an Annual Premium Equivalent (APE) basis for the Long-Term Savings division rose to Ł397m in the three months ended 31 March, up from Ł327m a year ago.

Chiefs at ENRC are pleased with the Kazak miner’s progress during the first quarter and say the recovery in demand, especially in China, continue to give it confidence for 2010. Revenue for the three months to 31 March “increased significantly” on the year before, reflecting higher production and sales volumes in the ferroalloys and iron ore divisions and the addition of copper and cobalt sales.

Travel group Thomas Cook posted narrower losses in the six months to the end of March after continuing to cut capacity to cope with tough economic conditions and said that the impact of the volcano cloud disruption in April would be about Ł70m. Pre-tax losses totalled Ł252.2, less than the Ł309m shortfall seen in the same period the previous year. Revenues fell to Ł3.3bn from Ł3.48bn due to what the company described as ‘planned capacity reductions in out winter 09/10 mainstream travel programme.’

The oil spilling out of the damaged rig in the Gulf of Mexico has cost BP $450 million so far, the oil giant said on Thursday. The figure includes the cost of spill response, containment, relief well drilling, commitments to the Gulf Coast States, settlements and federal costs.

Engineering and project management company AMEC performed in line with expectations in the first four months of the year and said it is seeing some improvement in customer spending. The group said it remains on track to deliver its 8.5 per cent EBITA margin target in 2010.

Camping and short break specialist Holidaybreak said half year losses narrowed and it expects full year results to be in line with company forecasts. Headline loss before tax narrowed to Ł17.7m for the six months ended 31 March from Ł18.1m the same time a year before. Revenue fell to Ł150.2m from Ł153.2m.

Oilfield support services group Petrofac has made a good start to 2010 and said it is confident that it will be another year of strong growth.

FTSE 100 - Risers
BT Group (BT.A) 128.60p +6.72%
3i Group (III) 283.10p +5.56%
Old Mutual (OML) 123.00p +3.36%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 338.40p +3.17%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,116.00p +1.92%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,077.50p +1.89%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,353.50p +1.87%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,540.00p +1.76%
Sage Group (SGE) 245.40p +1.74%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,315.00p +1.70%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Cobham (COB) 249.90p -0.95%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,471.00p -0.81%
Prudential (PRU) 561.50p -0.71%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 647.50p -0.54%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 599.00p -0.33%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 664.70p -0.30%
Pearson (PSON) 1,002.00p -0.20%