News

Good news from the financial sector spurs leading stocks forward this morning, with banks and properties spearheading the advance.

Hammerson lifted annual net asset value by 3% to 1,545p with rental income holding up strongly. Underlying profit before tax rose by 24.1% to £117.3m. The proposed full year dividend for 2007 rises by 26%. Deutsche Bank has reiterated its "buy" recommendation for the stock, with a 1,400p price target. British Land rises in sympathy while Land Securities gets an extra boost from weekend bid speculation.

Royal Bank of Scotland is also pushing ahead on weekend reports it will cover its expected sub-prime losses with asset sales rather than more equity. Its results are due Thursday. Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley are ahead on reports that Lloyds TSB is mulling a bid for both while they are financially stretched.

King of the mortgage lenders HBOS is wanted ahead of results Wednesday while housebuilder Persimmon firms up ahead of its full-year results tomorrow.

Aviva is another leading stock making headway prior to its results announcement this week. The insurance sector is mostly higher but Resolution shows nervousness at the continued delays in the consummation of the takeover by Pearl.

Xstrata crawls higher after announcing it has achieved record production for many of its minerals in 2007, but reported a fall in copper output. The miner said it saw record output at its coking and thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, zinc mining and platinum operations.

AB Foods is the worst performing Footsie stock after a trading update this morning. The company says trading in the first 16 weeks of this year has been up to its expectations with interim results to show good growth in the group's adjusted operating profit over the same period last year. Fellow food producers Premier Foods and Dairy Crest are also in the doldrums, with the former hammered by Credit Suisse cutting its price target from 250p to 100p.

Energy regulator Ofgem has fined National Grid £41.6m for a breach of competition law in its handling of domestic metering. National Grid said that it was "extremely disappointed" with the decision and will appeal.

Bus and train group Stagecoach motors forward. The group said trading since 31 October has remained strong with the overall business performing at the top end of management's expectations. Like-for-like revenue in the UK bus divisions rose 7.4% in the forty weeks ended 3 February, while UK Rail increased 14%. Sector peer Arriva moves up in sympathy.

Waste group Biffa is lower after rival bidders have dropped out leaving the 350p per share bid from WasteAcquisitionco, formed by Montague Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners as the only offer.

Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl edges higher after announcing that it saw full year profit before tax and intangible amortization jump 8% due to organic growth and strong performance from acquisitions.

Recruitment company Robert Walters rallied Monday on news of a 26% leap in full year profit and comments that it is well placed to ride out the current economic uncertainty.

Civil engineering consultant Waterman reported a 43% jump in half year pre-tax profit and said it is confident it will continue to perform in line with expectations.

Tottenham Hotspur celebrate their victory at Wembley yesterday by putting on a few pence.

Boat electronics specialist Raymarine power forward after full-year profits surged, despite a slowdown in US as margins improved due to an outsourcing programme.

Investment company Commoditrade is on the slide after disclosing that the challenging conditions seen in the latter part of the year have continued into the current year.

Minerva saw its loss before tax and investment property revaluation movements grow to £6.4m in the six months to 31 December 2007 from £2.3m the year before, but the shares rose after an upbeat statement accompanying results.

Aerospace and defence contractor Ultra Electronics said today it has an excellent basis for further progress in 2008 following an 11% increase in full year headline profit.