Shares in oil and gas companies were higher at midday in London on Monday, partly as a result of rising crude oil prices, as well as on the news of a possible takeover bid for Edinburgh Oil Gas by Oranje-Nassau E&P and Dyas UK.
As a result of the possibility, shares of Edinburgh Oil […]

In London at midday Friday, Hit entertainment was down on news that one of the potential buyers of the children’s entertainment company had dropped out of the bidding competition, sending Hit’s shares down by 2.2 percent. In the technology sector, meanwhile, Spirent was down another 3.9 percent after a large fall on Thursday, still […]

In mid-day trading in London on Thursday, telecommunications testing company Spirent saw their shares fall by 24.9 percent after the company issued a warning that they will probably be reporting an operating loss of around £10m for the first half.
On the news, Citigroup downgraded Spirent’s stock to “hold” status. Computacenter was down as […]

Mining stocks posted gains in mid-day trading in London on Wednesday, as Antofagasta gained 1.6 percent when UBS raised its rating to “buy” from “neutral.”
Additionally, Xstrata was up 2.2 percent, and BHP Billiton advanced by 1 percent.
Also on the plus side, electronics retailer Dixon’s rose 0.5 percent after Deutsche Bank raised […]

Every stock listed on the FTSE 100 in London was down at the beginning of the day, and by mid-morning only one, ITV, the television group had climbed into the winning column with a gain of 0.2 percent.
At mid-day, the FTSE 100 was off 1.7 percent to 4.809.1 and the FTSE 250 had […]

Water and pharmaceuticals seemed to be doing well in mid-afternoon trading on the London markets Friday.
Northumbrian Water rose by 3.2 percent and Derwent Valley was 1.8 percent higher. Drug maker GlaxoSmithKlein was up by 2.3 percent, and AstraZeneca had risen by 2.5 percent.
But those bright spots didn’t help the markets […]

In London on Thursday, Woolworth’s shares fell by 29.1 percent to 39 p after Apax Partners abandoned its takeover bid, estimated to be approximately £837 million.
This withdrawal of the offer by Apax was seen as bad news for the retail sector in general.
There was also some speculation that Apax actually […]

While there has been no decision on the matter yet, there is a good chance that the UK Debt Management Office will issue an inflation-linked 50-year bond in the third quarter of 2005.
There are several reasons for investor interest in such a bond. It would protect investors from future price increases. […]

After an announcement of substantial losses and the delay in release of two new video games, Eidos has accepted a takeover bid from SCi Entertainment.
Eidos is the maker of such popular video games as “Tomb Raider” and “Hitman.”
In accepting the SCi bid, Eidos is passing on another offer from Elevation, a […]

Annual house price inflation in the UK has backed down into the single digits.
Prices were up in March, but the rise was lower than previous rises. Additionally, first quarter prices were in line with trends over the past year, when prices rose most in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Northern England.
Housing […]