Market News and Views
The FTSE 100 is called to open lower this morning on profit-taking after closing at its highest level since late April on Thursday. Investors will await news from day 1 of the G20 meeting of financial leaders in South Korea which will keep the dollar in focus and the possibility of more quantitative easing in the US. There is no major economic data of note as we finish the week.
Today's Company announcements
BSkyB Q1 Results saw adjusted operating profit up 25% to £255m in the 3 months to end September on revenues ahead 15% at £1.53bn. There was net customer growth of 96,000 taking the reach of households to 9.956m with 2.3m customers now taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony packages with it adding that there was further good growth in HD with net additions of 215,00 to reach 3.2m customers.African Barrick Gold Q3 Report notes EBITDA down 3% in the period to end September to $89m but up 58% to $286m year to date. There was a drop of 23% in gold production to 164,996 ounces in Q3 due to production setbacks although there was a 29% rise in achieved gold prices to $1,233/oz. The company reaffirmed guidance to produce 716,000 ounces in 2010, in line with last year's output after cutting its guidance twice recently.
Betfair IPO. The company has priced its IPO at £13 a share, which is at the top end of its indicated range to give it a market value on float of £1.39bn. Betfair shareholders are selling 15.2% of the stock raising gross proceeds of £211m with no new capital being raised. Conditional dealings are expected to start today with unconditional dealings and admission to trading on the main market due to begin on 27 October 2010
360investgroup
