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CFD Traders DiaryFootsie in good shape on a very busy morning for news29/4/2008 Traders have had plenty to occupy them today with the eagerly awaited reports from the oil majors and the news from HBOS, but the overall bullish tone in the UK continues and Footsie is up 43 points mid-morning.
Shares in BP rose a hefty 4.8% as its Q1 replacement cost profit came in at $6.59bn, compared with $4.44bn a year ago, and well ahead of forecasts. There was an almost identical rise at Royal Dutch Shell which also beat forecasts with a 12% rise in q1 current cost of supply net income. With crude prices feeling resilient, brokers look likely to upgrade future forecasts, and these shares may continue to rise, which is also the case for Cairn Energy and BG Group.
Over in the banking sector, HBOS followed up the RBS rights issue with its own cash call, and the terms are 2 new shares for every 5 existing shares at 275p per share. The group indicated that the dividend payout ratio would be reduced to 40%, so again we see this as a mixed blessing for the sector, which seems set to drift down until all this new supply is absorbed. After the long drawn out and ultimately fruitless approach for the company, it was back to fundamentals for Friends Provident which said that Q1 new life & pensions business increased by 11% to £247m, ahead of market forecasts. In common with many others in the sector, strong international business drove overall sales, but there are still some stale bulls out there at FP and this is reflected in a lacklustre move in the shares so far, so we would leave this well alone for now. |
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