Financial News

By Steve Slater LONDON (Reuters) - Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered just topped analysts' average forecasts with a 19 percent rise in pretax profit for last year, fuelled by an acquisition in Korea which was its biggest ever. Standard Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday 2005 pretax profit rose to $2.68 billion (1.53 billion pounds) from $2.25 billion the previous year, above an average forecast of $2.65 billion from 12 analysts polled by Reuters. The profit incl ...

LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 surged near 5,900 points on Thursday, making up more of the ground lost in Tuesday's slide, with Aviva leading the charge on the back of forecast-beating results. By 8:20 a.m., the FTSE 100 index was 35.8 points, or 0.6 percent, higher at 5,879.9 points, having closed up 52.6 points in the previous session when it took back some of Tuesday's 84-point drop. That fall was the index's biggest one-day points loss since October 19. Britain's biggest insurer Aviva (A ...

Lucy Farndon, Daily Mail2 March 2006 INDUSTRIAL gases firm BOC is finalising an agreed takeover by German rival Linde. The deal is set to value BOC at around £8.4bn and will result in its 30,000 staff coming under German control. OTHER STORIES Trinity Mirror still struggling Aviva to pay £700m into pensions Market report: Thursday preview Water meters made compulsory Britis ...

Brian O'Connor, Daily Mail2 March 2006 HUNTING for the next bid target is the stock market's favourite sport at present. A stunning series of big bids has rattled the cages of some of the UK's corporate giants, from airport group BAA to ports operator P&O. WANT TO KNOW MORE? POLL: What do you expect the level of the FTSE 100 to be at the end of 2006? OTHER STORIES Market report:  ...

European markets pushed higher Wednesday as well-received earnings from Xstrata and others, along with takeover speculation surrounding French media group Thomson, helped fuel a bounceback. The German DAX 30 indexclosed up 1.2% at 5,866, while the French CAC 40 indexadded 1.1% at 5,057 and the U.K. FTSE 100 indextacked on 0.9% at 5,844. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600also moved up 0.9%, ...

Talk that possible buyers could be running the rule over consumer goods group Unilever helped the London market rebound on Wednesday from the sharp fall in the previous session. // Unilever announced last month plans to sell its European frozen food division, which includes the Birds Eye brand and which has a price tag of about €1.5bn. Nestlé of Switzerland is said to be interested. That sale se ...

Jose Manuel Barroso has stepped into a row over a huge European energy deal by warning EU members against shutting markets to foreign competition. The European Commission president said economic barriers were damaging to the EU amid a continuing Franco-Italian dispute over protectionism. The merger of Gaz de France and Suez has brought simmering tensions over "economic nationalism" to the surface. Italian ministers have urged Brussels to block the 72bn euros deal. Defending interests The d ...

By Friedel Rother LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 climbed on Wednesday, led by BOC on talk of a fresh bid from Linde, while a bounce for Vodafone and oil stocks underpinned the market. But financials were a weak point as investors took profits after results from mortgage lender HBOS (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , pushing shares in the UK's fourth-biggest bank down 5 percent, even as it unveiled a 17 percent rise in annual profits. "It's entirely valuation driven," said Simon Maughan, he ...

By David Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Tobacco company Gallaher reported an expected 6.6 percent rise in 2005 profits on Wednesday but warned of lower profit growth in continental Europe in 2006 due to tough trading conditions. The company, whose cigarette brands include Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Mayfair in its key British market, also warned the impending smoking ban in pubs and clubs in England due by mid-2007 will cut the cigarette market by around 4-5 percent. Chief Executive Nigel Northri ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- In the world of corporate mergers and acquisitions, the New York Stock Exchange is about to go from referee to big player. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the NYSE's merger with Archipelago Holdings Inc. (AX) late Monday -- clearing the last regulatory hurdle standing in the way of the combination. With a SEC clearance in hand, the NYSE will become a p ...