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CFD Traders DiaryIntercontinental hotel again on bid alert22/1/2007
The
main theme this morning was a possible reversal in commodity prices over the
weekend, with copper and gold having rallied on Friday, but early on there was
little follow through, although bargain hunters moved into some of the leading
mining stocks. The early leader in the
blue chips, and not for the first time in recent weeks, was InterContinental Hotels. The shares were up to a new high of 1330p
following news that the Barclay brothers' investment vehicle, Ellerman, has
taken a 5% stake in the firm. There has
been plenty of bid speculation with suggestions that Starwood Capital may
approach with a 1,500p per share bid.
In this morning’s announcements, Wolseley
fell back around 2% after it said new housing starts in the US fell more sharply than
originally expected but said it expects to make progress for the full
year. Pearson, which has also been subject to bid talk in recent days,
also dropped a similar amount despite announcing it was on track to report
record profits for the last year at the upper end of expectations. The education arm saw good revenue momentum
and better than expected margin improvement, the FT boosted circulation and
advertising, while Penguin had a good year-end publishing and selling season. Spread betting firm IG Group reported a 45% hike in first half pre-tax profit
following strong sales volumes across its businesses.
British Airways was another
casualty as it announced that its cabin crew has given notice of their
intention to hold a series of 72 hour strikes over the next month. Peter
Hambro Mining produced 261,000 ounces of gold in 2006, up 5% from the
previous year. Ladbrokes has announced moves to expand its Nordic online gaming
businesses with the acquisition of partner Sponsio.
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