Headline shares started the day lower after plunges on Wall Street and in Asia, as European debt continued to weigh on investors minds and weak US economic data also added to woes. At time of writing the FTSE 100 was trading down 15.67 points at 5057.46, down but off early lows Overnight in the US, the DOW finished down 3.6% at 10,068.01, recording its largest percentage fall in over a year. The Nasdaq Composite fell 94 points at 2,204 and the S&P500 shed 43 points at 1,072. The US Senate backed President Obama's Wall Street reform bill, which should see financial firms held more accountable.
LONDON MARKETS
Those shares in the main index which started the day lower included BP (LON:BP.), down 2.67% at 514.7p, RBS, down 2.66% at 43.63p, Lloyds, down 2.11% at 53.74p, Burberry Group (LON:BRBY) down 1.78% at 634.5p and Barclays (LON:BARC) down 1.74% at 283p. On the gainers table, we saw United Utilities (LON:UU.) up 1.61% at 535p, Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) up 1.32% at 2849p, Vedenta up 1.13% at 2143p and Vodafone Group (LON:VOD) up 1.08% at 130.85p
British Airways (LON:BAY) woes continue as the strike-bound airline has posted a record loss before tax of £531m for the year to 31 March 2010 ( 2009 Loss £401m). Revenue was down £1 billion to £7,994m (2009: £8,992m) and although fuel costs were £597m lower and other operating costs were down £390m, this was a second consecutive year of record losses. Group revenue in Q 4 was down 4.7 per cent to just under £1.9bn with operating costs down 11.4 per cent to £2bn. This resulted in an operating loss for the quarter of £145m, an improvement of £164m from quarter 4 in the previous year.
London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSE) has posted a statutory pre tax profit of £144.3m for the year to 31 March 2010 which compares with a loss of £250.8m for the previous year. Total income was 6% lower at £628.3m but the Exchange says that the cost base has been brought down by 8% at constant currency acquisition impairment and amortisation, and exceptional items (and excluding one-off costs of £25.3 million taken in relation to TradElect replacement by MillenniumIT). The total dividend is being maintained at 24.4p.
Menzies(john) (LON:MNZS) , the logistics business, has predicted that their full…
