Footsie is making good gains in early trading, though BP, the big story this morning, has not joined in as yet. The oil giant BP confirmed Tony Hayward is to step down as chief executive of the group on 1 October to be succeeded by fellow executive director Bob Dudley.
The group also unveiled a $32.2bn charge for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including the $20bn it has already committed to putting in escrow. As a result the company reported a headline loss of $17bn for the second quarter, the largest ever by a UK company.
Revenues and profits continued soaring at ARM in the second quarter as the chip-designer continued to see strong demand for its technology from makers of mobile ‘phones and other must-have gadgets. It posted a pre-tax profit of £43.5m in the three months to June 30, up from £16.3m over the same period the previous year.
Banks are a strong sector with Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays all in demand this morning.
Diversified mining group Xstrata saw a small decline in copper production in the first half of 2010 but ferrochrome output rebounded strongly. The group, which is a major producer of seven major commodities (copper, coking coal, thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, vanadium and zinc) updated the market on first half production levels on Tuesday morning.
Also in mining, higher production and a rising gold price sent half-year net income atAfrican Barrick Gold up by 217% to $99m. Revenue rose by 64% to $424m up 64% as production rose by 23% to 356,208 ounces and realised gold prices jumped by 28% to $1,155 per ounce.
E-learning specialist Promethean World’s first half revenues are up 35% with strong sales of both systems and handsets. Fantasy war games group Games Workshop saw sluggish sales in the year to May 30, but managed to lift profits as it cut back on costs.
Car parts and bicycles retailer Halfords drove through a 9.6% rise in group revenue from 3 April to 26 July, helped by its acquisition of Nationwide Autocentres in February, but it issued a cautionary stance on the economic environment.
Record results at its two main divisions helped speciality chemicals supplier Croda double half year pre-tax profit, with strong trading trickling into the first weeks of the second half. Pre-tax profit surged to £96.2m in the six months to 30 June 2010 from £46.3m the year before. Sales on continuing operations rose 27.6% to £516.1m
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