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By Matt Falloon LONDON (Reuters) - Blue chip stocks closed higher on Friday, scoring fresh five-year highs and sealing their strongest one-week gain since January as mining stocks such as Antofagasta rebounded strongly. The FTSE 100 has gained 9 percent this year thanks to bid activity, solid earnings and cheap valuations. While some analysts question the sustainability of the move, many say there is no reason to expect a significant change in direction. "The equity market is fundamentally un ...

By Matt Falloon LONDON (Reuters) - Socks closed higher on Friday, scoring fresh five-year highs and sealing their strongest one-week gain since January as mining stocks such as Antofagasta (ANTO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) rebounded strongly. The FTSE 100 has gained 9 percent this year thanks to bid activity, solid earnings and cheap valuations. While some analysts question the sustainability of the move, many say there is no reason to expect a significant change in direction. "The equity  ...

CHICAGO (Dow Jones) -- McDonald's Corp. reported a 14% drop in first-quarter earnings - primarily because of a year-ago tax gain -and raised flags of potential problems ahead. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger maker, said it earned $625.3 million, or 49 cents a share, compared with last year's profit of $727.9 million, or 56 cents a share, a year earlier. The resul ...

Fast food giant McDonald's - which has revamped its menus - has said first quarter revenues are up, thanks to US breakfast sales and European business. It has been rolling out new food items over the past three years, and saw revenues rise 6% to $5.1bn. McDonald's "continued to connect with customers and increase the relevance of our brand", chief Jim Skinner said. Profits were down 14%, the biggest fall since 2002, mainly due to a tax benefit received in the same period a year ago. Shake-up ...

Standard Life’s 2.4m members this week received the long-awaited details of the windfalls they can expect if the life assurer demutualises as planned in July. // The payments were in line with expectations; the average windfall is expected to be £1,700 based on £1.1bn of new capital being raised on flotation. But the method used to calculate the payout is complex. Each eligible member – that is  ...

Stockbrokers and financial advisers are seeing increased interest in shares listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) as investors, burnt by the recent tax clampdown on trusts, seek ways to escape inheritance tax. // Investing in Aim shares is one of the few ways of minimising inheritance tax that has not yet been stamped out by the government. If an investor has held Aim shares for at le ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Shire is expected to post a rise in first-quarter underlying earnings on Thursday, helped by a strong performance from its top-selling medicine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But the result could be overshadowed by any update on talks with Barr Pharmaceuticals, which is seeking to make a cheap, copycat version of Shire's (SHP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) key ADHD drug, Adderall XR. Shire, Britain's third-biggest drugmaker, struck a deal in January with ...

DETROIT -(Dow Jones)- Ford Motor Co. (F) on Friday said it posted a net loss of $1.19 billion, or 64 cents a share, in the first quarter due to a bevy of restructuring charges and continued weakness in its North American operations. The auto maker's recent performance stands in stark contrast to the $1.2 billion, or 60 cents per share, profit it posted in the first quarter of 2005. Ford's over ...

By Bernard Simon in TorontoPublished: April 21 2006 13:28 | Last updated: April 21 2006 13:28Ford Motor swung to a $1.2bn first-quarter loss, warning that the turnaround of its troubled north American operations would not be quick or painless. The world’s third-biggest carmaker also reported a 9 per cent drop in revenues. // “We are in the very early stage of this strategy to transform the way we ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Property developer St. Modwen Properties (SMP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) forecast another year of progress on Friday, saying it continued to secure the development sales required to meet annual profit targets. "The investment market continues to strengthen with good competition for all our pre-let industrial and office projects. Similarly the market for the 'oven-ready' resi ...