News

Two big companies have been rattling the collection tin today but it is telecoms giant BT that is dominating proceedings as it slumps after a profits warning.

BT said second quarter EBITDA and earnings per share will be slightly below expectations after an 'unsatisfactory' performance at its Global Services unit.

In a separate statement, BT announced that François Barrault resigned as chief executive of Global Services and as a BT board director on 30 October. He has been replaced by finance director Hanif Lalani.

BT's broadband rival BSkyB is going well after the broadcaster reported a rise in revenues and profits as it continued to attract new customers. Pre-tax profits in the three months to 30 September climbed to £129m from £121m as turnover climbed to £1.25bn from £1.19bn.

International banking group Barclays intends to raise up to £7.3bn through the issue of new capital. Barclays plans to raise £3bn through the issue of Reserve Capital Instruments (RCIs) to Qatar Holdings and entities representing the beneficial interests of HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi.

British Gas owner Centrica is another leviathan tapping its shareholders for funds. It is to raise £2.2bn through a rights issue to fund the potential acquisition of a 25% stake in British Energy. Centrica will issue 1,393m new ordinary shares at 160p on the basis of 3 new shares for every 8 existing shares.

Friends Provident reported a 14% drop in total life and pensions sales to £701m and announced plans to distribute its 52% stake in F&C among shareholders by the middle of next year.

F&C Asset Management reported a 3% drop in third-quarter assets under management (AUM) to £93.3bn. Management fees were some 4% lower than in the same period in 2007 and the group expects 2008 performance fees to be lower than those achieved in the previous year.

Port operator Forth Ports reported trading ahead of last year and expects to make good progress for the rest of the year. Forth, whose name comes from the river in Scotland where it operates a port at the Grangemouth oil refinery, said container volumes from the refinery were ahead of last year. Trading at the port of Tilbury in Essex remained ahead of last year.

Aerospace and defence systems company Meggitt has seen little sign thus far of the anticipated slow down in the civil aerospace market while the military business continues to trade in line.

Instrumentation and controls company Spectris is seeing a slight slackening in revenue growth in the second half of the year but this is being compensated for by favourable currency movements.

Outdoor clothing retailer Blacks Leisure reported widened first-half losses but said the initial phase of its turnaround plan has progressed well.

Shares in Southern Cross Healthcare Group soared as the group completed a refinancing of its debt. The UK's largest provider of care homes and long term care beds has replaced four original tranches of debt with three separate loan tranches, including a term loan, a revolving credit facility and a bridging loan.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Shire Plc (SHP) 824.00p +5.17%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,002.00p +4.37%
Friends Provident (FP.) 69.20p +3.75%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 489.25p +3.44%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 685.00p +3.16%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,181.00p +2.96%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 555.00p +2.78%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,373.00p +2.77%
Tesco (TSCO) 334.60p +2.64%
Schroders (SDR) 785.00p +2.61%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
BT Group (BT.A) 110.40p -22.31%
Old Mutual (OML) 50.60p -15.67%
Barclays (BARC) 182.70p -10.99%
Aviva (AV.) 314.25p -10.21%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 706.00p -9.49%
Centrica (CNA) 285.75p -6.69%
Prudential (PRU) 287.00p -6.67%
Next (NXT) 1,028.00p -6.03%
ICAP (IAP) 301.75p -5.26%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 286.25p -4.98%