|
British Land shares climb in higher FTSE 100
FTSE 100 index up 0.4%; AstraZeneca shares advance
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
Last Update: 5:00 AM ET Feb 9, 2010
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Property-development firms advanced in the top British share index on Tuesday, after a rise in property values helped British Land swing to a profit.
British Land shares were up 2.3% after it posted a fiscal third-quarter net profit of 623 million pounds ($972 million), compared to a year-earlier loss of 1.59 billion pounds, helped by strong growth in valuations across its portfolio.
The group said net-asset value rose 18% to 438 pence a share and the portfolio valuation rose 8.2%. Underlying profit before tax declined to 58 million pounds from 63 million pounds a year earlier.
The group also said early signs of recovery seen in the second quarter have extended right across its portfolio and that 99% of its retail portfolio is rented out.
British Land's rival, Land Securities , advanced 3.2%, with the gains for both firms helping the FTSE 100 index to rise 0.4% to 5,113.37.
Other European shares were marginally higher, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to a bright start on Wall Street. See Europe Markets.
Lloyds TSB LYG, up 3.4%, and Royal Bank of Scotland , up 3.1%, were also helping the top share index to advance, while miners were also higher, with Xstrata up 2.6%.
Shares of drug maker AstraZeneca AZN rose 1.7%.
The firm said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved its Crestor medicine to reduce the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction and arterial revascularization procedures in people that don't have clinically evident coronary heart disease but do have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Outside the top index, shares of online gambling group 888 Holdings rose 1.2% after its fourth-quarter operating income rose 14% to $68 million and that it remains confident of meeting consensus expectations for 2009 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
888 also said the first quarter of 2010 started well, with average daily operating income over the first five weeks of the quarter 7% ahead of the fourth quarter.
Shares of chip maker Wolfson Microelectronics jumped 7.7%, also outside the top index.
The firm's fourth-quarter net loss widened to $3.8 million, from $2.8 million at the same point a year ago in challenging and uncertain economic conditions. Still, revenue visibility is improving with order lead times lengthening, the firm said.
ITV shares were down 1.3%. British Sky Broadcasting Group said that it has placed a 10.4% stake in the commercial television broadcasting firm after deciding not to keep challenging a U.K. government decision designed to force the firm to reduce its stake.
Sky said that the placing of 404.4 million ITV shares at 48.50 pence per share results in a consideration of around 196 million pounds. The firm paid over 900 million pounds for the stake in 2006, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Sky intends to retain a residual 7.5% investment in ITV. BSkyB is 39.1%-owned by News Corp, the parent of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.
|