FTSE dips despite consumer product confidence
Speculation that Reckitt Benckiser could be the next consumer products giant to attract a buyer made its shares the top riser in London today.
Reckitt attracted interest as traders assessed the impact of Procter & Gamble’s proposed £30bn (€43bn) takeover of Gillette, which was unveiled today.
Anglo-Dutch rival Unilever was also in positive territory, but the strength of the consumer products sector was not reflected elsewhere as the FTSE 100 Index dipped 5.8 points to 4847.6 by mid-morning.
Reckitt Benckiser rose 33p to 1573p and Unilever gained 6.5p to 498.5p, while takeover talk continued to boost shares in logistics group Exel which is seen as a possible target of US giant United Parcel Services. Exel strengthened 18p to 788p.
Among other developments, airports operator BAA edged ahead by a penny to 616p, following third quarter results showing it remained on track to handle 6% more passengers than a year ago
Broker upgrades boosted AstraZeneca as analysis of the drugs giant’s full-year results yesterday suggested that margin targets would be met. AstraZeneca shares rose 18p to 1998p, but there was no such joy for rival GlaxoSmithKline which fell 5p to 1180p.
In the market’s second tier, United Business Media rose 4% or 20p to 537p after announcing it had launched a strategic review that could result in the sale of its NOP World market research business.
And children’s character rights group HIT Entertainment rose 6.5p to 257p – a jump of almost 3% – after it said it had made a steady start to its financial year.
But car manual publisher Haynes found the going tough after the weak US dollar capped interim profits at £3.7m (€5.3m) – the same level as last year. Its shares fell more than 3% or 12.5p to 367.5p even though an “exciting” publishing programme was prepared for the second half of its financial year.
