News

Mining stocks are undermining London's attempts at a rally this morning, though equities remain marginally firmer on balance.

Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS, both of whom recently announced huge rights issues, are showing good gains despite stories this morning that underwriters to Bradford & Bingley's emergency rights issue were on the point of pulling the plug on the deal before private equity giant Texas Pacific Group bailed out the buy-to-let lender.

Lloyds TSB, meanwhile, is wanted after Citigroup revealed this morning that Lloyds TSB's management has confirmed to Citigroup that it is still targeting "underlying double-digit economic profit growth across all three divisions."

Not all banks are prospering, however; Standard Chartered, Alliance & Leicester and HSBC are all lower.

Also on the downturn are mining stocks, with Vedanta and ENRC the major fallers in the sector.

Oil and gas group BG Group has signed two liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreements with Brazil's Petrobras. Under the terms of the agreements, BG will supply the import terminals being built by Petrobras in Pecem and in Guanabara Bay.

Elsewhere, no-frills airline Ryanair is to ground up to 20 aircraft (approx. 10% of its fleet), mainly at Stansted and Dublin, adding "The outlook for the coming fiscal year to March 2009 remains entirely dependent on fares and fuel prices. Based on forward bookings, we now believe it likely that average fares for the coming year will rise by approx. +5% and if oil prices remain at $130 per barrel, then we expect to accordingly breakeven for fiscal '09."

Ryanair posted a 20% increase in full year net profits after tax to March of €481m. Traffic grew by 20% to 51m and revenues grew 21% to €2.714bn.

LNG specialist engineer Hamworthy lifted full year profits to £17.4m from £13.6m. Sales rose by 21% to £232m. Its closing order book rose by 16% to £311.8m (2007: £268.2m). " The near term outlook for the group is secure, being underpinned by a strong order book which the group expects will deliver another year of strong sales," it added.

Pre-tax at United Utilities fell last year by 5% to £478m, though on an underlying basis the utility says there was a 17% gain, better than expected. " We have improved the level of customer service we are providing and for the second year running have achieved Ofwat's leakage target. We are confident of delivering a strong financial performance over the remainder of this regulatory period," it said. The full year dividend goes up by 3.87%.

Taylor Nelson Sofres and Germany's Gfk have agreed a merger to create the world's second-biggest market research company with a market value of about $3.7bn. Taylor Nelson is to offer 11.74 new TNS shares for each Gfk share.

There was further cheer for AIM listed Mediterranean Oil & Gas today after its 100%-owned Ombrina Mare 2 appraisal well offshore Italy was completed and the field confirmed as a discovery.

Acquisitions and upgrades to existing assets helped Russia-based Urals Energy more than double its reserves last year. Estimates showed that the acquisition of Taas Yuriakh and upward revisions to Dulisma reserves estimates led to a 104% increase in total proved and probable (2P) reserves to 1.183 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Internet video streaming firm Forbidden Technologies loses ground despite narrowing full year operating losses as sales almost halved in 2007. Sales dropped to £70,848 from £131,535 in 2006, although bosses said this "should not be read as a meaningful trend nor an indication of the future potential of the company."

A fast growing international business helped digital tetra radio provider Sepura post bigger annual pre-tax profit.

Protherics saw full-year losses widen but the drug developer said it expects trading to be strong in during 2009.

Travel company Hogg Robinson matched reduced expectations for full year profits, but said it remains cautious about its Events & Meetings Management and SME activities in the short term.

Full year profits jumped 20% at aircraft components group Umeco as demand remained "robust" for composite materials and "buoyant" for supply chain services.