Headline shares started the day lower after falls on Wall Street and in Asia overnight, after US home sales unexpectedly fell. At time of writing, the FTSE 100 was down 40 points at 5205.5. In the US last night, the Dow fell 149 points at 10,294, the Nasdaq Composite was down 27 points at 2,262 and the S&P 500 was 18 points lower at 1,095.

LONDON MARKETS

Those shares seeing losses in early trade included Wolseley (LON:WOS), down 37% at 1525p, LSE, down 2.34% at 625p, Xstrata Plc (LON:XTA), down 2.29% at 1024p, Experian Group Ltd (LON:EXPN), down 2.22% at 616p and Standard Life Plc (LON:SL.), down 2.18% at 183.9p. Shares in the black, included Lloyds, up 1.32% at 59.78p, Cable and Wireless up 0.93% at 92.05p and BP (LON:BP.). up 0.93% at 337.3p

Household good retailer, Kesa Electricals (LON:KESA) has reported pre-tax profits of £69.6m for the year to 30 April 2010. Group revenues were 3.4% higher at £5,124.1 million (2009: £4,954.1 million), an increase of 0.4% in constant currency and decrease of 1.5% on a like- for- like basis. Web generated sales increased by 23 per cent and now represent 9.1 per cent of total product sales.

Bus and rail group, Stagecoach Group (LON:SGC) has posted pre-tax profits of £161.3m which are ahead of market expectations. Revenues were 2.9% higher at £2164.4m with revenue from the UK Bus operation ahead 5.4% at £875.4m and UK rail revenues up 5.0% at £1,026.7m. In the US revenues were down 14.7% at £266.1m and the Group says that it is expecting any revenue growth in the North America division to be modest in the year ahead, but the division will benefit from reduced fuel costs. The Group is declaring a final dividend of 6.5p, up 8.3% on last year.

Multimedia technology group, Imagination Technologies Group (LON:IMG) pre-tax profits have jumped to a record £10.2m for the year to 30 April 2010, up from £2.7m last year. Group revenue powered ahead 26% to £80.9m . This included Technology business revenue which was 28% higher at £47.3m and PURE revenue which grew 23% at £33.6m. Technology adjusted operating profit was up 78% to £13.6m (2009: £7.6m) whilst PURE adjusted operating loss was reduced by 90% to £0.3m (2009: loss £2.7m).

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