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Home Markets Markets RBS, Barclays strong performance continues
RBS, Barclays strong performance continues PDF Print E-mail
Written by Will Peters   
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 09:00
FTSE 100 company performance insight. Wednesday 28 July.

RBS (LON:RBS) and Barclays (LON:BARC) continue to dominate proceedings on the FTSE 100 this morning.

Banks are still going well after the reports yesterday that new capital requirements might be less onerous than previously expected.

RBS and Barclays were the best performers.

Lloyds Banking Group is seeing modest gains while HSBC Holdings appears to have found a new head of steam.

So what has got the likes of Barclays and RBS excited?

The Basel committee agreed to continue allowing some assets, including banks’ minority stakes in other financial firms, to count in part as capital, reversing its initial stance to ban their use all together.

It also expanded the definition of what counts as liquid assets and gave banks until 2018 to comply with a new leverage ratio designed to rein in risk- taking. A long-term liquidity ratio that analysts estimated would have forced banks to sell more than $4 trillion of debt also won’t be imposed for eight years.

Centrica is heading for more controversy over energy prices after the British Gas owner’s underlying interim profits jumped 65%.

Earnings in the half-year to June rose to £886m from £537m on revenues of £11.7bn, barely changed from the previous year. British Gas' profits jumped 98% to £585m

BG had delivered a “good” set of second quarter results with revenue up 18%. Operating profit rose 6% to $1.53bn on revenue up to $4.13bn from $3.49bn. Exploration & Production chipped in $746m, up from $728m i n 2009, but less than the $825m expected by Charles Stanley.

It was better at the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) operations, where profit grew to $540m from $465m. Charles Stanley had penciled in $525m. Profit before tax fell to $1.03bn in the second quarter, down from $1.37bn in 2009, due to $443m of impairment charges.

British American Tobacco upped its dividend by a better than forecast 19% and said it expect another year of good growth in both earnings and dividends.

The tobacco firm upped the dividend from 27.9p last year to 33.2p at the interim stage. Broker Charles Stanley expected a rise to 33.1p. Pre-tax profit rose to £2,279m in the six months to 30 June, up from £2,123m in the first half of 2009.

Tullow Oil announced that the Ngiri-2 appraisal well, which is located in the Butiaba region of Uganda Block 1, has encountered over 40 metres of net oil bearing reservoir in two zones within an overall 131 metre gross oil bearing interval.

Underwriter Brit Insurance has granted suitor Apollo access to the books after the US private equity firm submitted a new indicative proposal worth £850m, or £10.75 a share in cash.


Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 July 2010 09:03 )