Updates from Royal Mail, LSE and Galliford Try
The FTSE 100 barely budged on Wednesday: just a 4.6 point climb to 6,336.4. Oil stocks continued to rise with BP and TullowOil both up 3.5% (to 395p and 397p respectively). Investors additionally cheered on new numbers from DixonsCarphone on, which climbed 3% to 439.7p. Travelling south, however, was BA owner IAG, down more than 4% to 443.6p. Mondi and WPP shares also suffered on Wednesday.
Stateside the Dow Jones put on weight, up 288 points to 17,356.8 helped by noises from the Federal Reserve that an interest rate hike could be sometime off. Chevron and Unitedhealth Group shares were both up strongly; the Nasdaq pushed up 2.1%.
First off, the taxpayer is worse off by up to £180m less from the £2bn sale the Government made on the sale of the Royal Mail, claims a new report commissioned by Vince Cable, Business Secretary.
The report was overseen by City grandee Lord Myners and his numbers suggest that the overall loss was a great deal less than previously suggested, from several quarters. (Royal Mail shares soared more than 37% on the first day of trading.)
Myers says the Royal Mail float was a complex exercise "executed with considerable professionalism. Many previous governments attempted to sell but failed," he said in his report.
Next, a pre-close trading update, to 30 Nov, from the London Stock Exchange Group: it claims £41.0 billion equity capital was raised (2013: £26.7 billion) for the 11 months to 30 Nov.
ETF assets benchmarked to the FTSE climbed 20 per cent and demand for other information products, including UnaVista and SEDOL, remained strong claims the LSE though users of UK market real time information was cut 5%.
"The Group has made good progress this year," says LSE Group boss Xavier Rolet. "We are also pleased to have recently completed the acquisition of Frank Russell Company and work is already well underway to integrate the Russell and FTSE indices operations."
Lastly, house builder Galliford Try says its Integrated Solutions business has been appointed to the MoD's Next Generation Estates Contract (NGEC) Framework for Capital Works Projects in Scotland.
The four year framework is worth up to £250 million for projects with values of up to £12 million, extendable for a further three years.
"Our demonstration of innovation and flexibility," says Galliford Try chairman Greg Fitzgerald, "as well as Galliford Try's heavy emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency, will stand us in a good position to deliver efficiently for this specialised market."
Read more:
2015 Income Guide
Where's Britain spending?
US property market - how to achieve great returns
