FTSE regains footing
London’s leading shares were on the front foot today after a 4% gain for sweetmaker Cadbury Schweppes.
The FTSE 100 Index plunged into the red yesterday amid further inflationary concerns in the US, but it regained its footing to stand 19.3 points higher at 5900.2 by mid-morning.
Cadbury gained 20.5p to 541.5 after reporting a 24% hike in group pre-tax profits to £402m (€589m) for the first half of the year.
Investors cheered the news despite the company saying the high-profile salmonella scare which hit the firm in June was likely to cost it £20m (€29.3m) following the recall of one million chocolate bars.
Halifax Bank of Scotland found itself on the up buoyed by yesterday’s announcement of a 17% rise in half-year profits. Shares lifted 16p to 988.5p.
Lloyds TSB fared less well, down 8.5p at 525.5p, after it reported higher than expected bad debt levels today. The drop for Lloyds was mirrored by Barclays, which dipped a half a penny to 624.5p ahead of its figures tomorrow. But HSBC was ahead 5.5p to 965.5p after boosting its first-half profits 18% to £6.7bn (€9.8bn) earlier in the week.
Building materials firm Hanson was another winner, up 8p to 662.5p after it unveiled a 12% rise in half-year profits. The rise in group profits to £193.6m (€283.5m) also reflected good performances from aggregates operations in Australia, Europe and the UK.
Meanwhile, car and bicycle parts specialist Halfords rose 7.25p to 303p after it reported a 9.5% lift in total sales in the 17 weeks to Friday, while like-for-like sales when including the impact of a later Easter were ahead 6.6%.
While this is slower than the rate of 7.3% reported in June, shares still rose by more than 2% as analysts said Halfords had done well to offset the negative impact of the football and the hot summer weather.
