UK stocks headed up for a fifth straight day, with oil firms leading the charge north, as investors waited for inflation data for July.
IC TIP UPDATES:
Imperial Tobacco (IMT) reported a small decline in third quarter revenues, but said it was on course to complete its acquisition of a number of US cigarette brands from Reynolds American Inc and Lorillard Inc. Imperial, maker of JPS and Gauloises, revealed a 1 per cent fall in sales to £4.75bn in the nine months to June 30.
Standard Chartered (STAN) is nearing completion of a deal with US regulators to settle claims that it failed to review high-risk transactions. It has been reported that the UK bank is close to paying between $200m and $300m to settle the allegations by New York's banking regulator.
One of the UK's largest homebuilders Persimmon (PSN) has reported a 57 per cent increase in profits, as the recovery in the housing market takes hold across the UK. The builder sold 6,408 completed homes in the first half of 2014, a 28 per cent increase on the same period last year.
KEY STORIES:
BHP Billiton (BLT) confirmed that it is to spin-off a collection of aluminium, coal, silver and manganese mines and plants it will split off into an as yet unnamed separate company that will be listed in Australia and South Africa. This more or less undoes the original 2001 merger - and brings into question the wisdom of the move. The company also revealed that attributable full-year profits jumped 23 per cent to $13.8bn. Meanwhile, the group raised its dividend to 62 cents per share from 59 cents a year earlier.
Oil services specialist John Wood Group (WG.) has reported a marginal rise in trading profits for the first half as strength in production services was offset by weakness in other divisions.
CRH (CRH) reported pre-tax profits of €61m in the six months to June 30th 2014, as the construction firm benefited from improving sales margins. The Dublin and London listed company forecast second-half earnings to be “somewhat ahead” of last year.
PetroNeft (PTR) announced a number of significant actions following the completion of the Licence 61 Farmout to Oil India Limited on 3 July 2014, in particular the re-commencement of drilling operations on Licence 61. The company, which has operations in the Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, also announced that it is now debt free.
Sunrise Resources (SRES) reported the recovery of diamonds from two high interest samples from its Cue Diamond Project in Western Australia. Chairman Patrick Cheetham said: "The results confirm that the new kimberlite discovery northwest of the Soapy Bore kimberlite is diamondiferous and that at least one drill hole at Area 6 intersected diamondiferous material."
Mears Group (MER), a support services provider to the social housing sector, reported that pre-tax profits for the six-month ended 30 June 2014 increased to £14m from £5.4m in the previous year.
OTHER BUSINESS NEWS:
Russian state energy giant Rosneft has partnered with Norway's Statoil to search for oil in the Arctic, despite Western sanctions against Moscow.
