Aggreko powers Footsie rise

LONDON FTSE 100 CLOSE 5484.1 +78.1

SHARES in Aggreko continued to scale new heights yesterday as investors flocked to the temporary power provider ahead of full-year results tomorrow.

Aggreko shares reached 1,062p at one point during trading, before settling to 1,048p, up 14p.

Investors continued to react positively to the Glasgow headquartered-firm's announcement on Monday that is has won a 30 million contract to supply power to this year's World Cup in South Africa.

And the markets were unfazed by the announcement by the Aberdeen-based oil services firm Wood Group yesterday that pre-tax profits took a 31 per cent dive in 2009 after exceptional charges relating to a downsizing of its Venezuelan operations.

The group's shares ended up 7.10p, or 1.95 per cent, at 370.80p.

Overall, the FTSE 100 powered to gains of more than 1 per cent despite investors dumping shares in Prudential for the second session in a row.

The prospect of a 14 billion rights issue to pay for Prudential's Asian expansion sent the insurer down 8 per cent on top – it had already seen a plunge of 12 per cent on Monday.

But the wider market rose 78.1 points to 5,484.1, helped by rising commodity prices, hopes of a bail-out for debt-burdened Greece and brighter economic news in Asia.

Wall Street also advanced in early trading as sentiment was buoyed by further takeover activity, although economic data was thin on the ground.

Meanwhile, the pound remained below $1.5 against the dollar, having fallen under the benchmark for the first time in ten months on Monday due to concerns about the political outlook. Sterling was steady at 1.1 against the euro.

In the FTSE 100, Prudential fell again, down 42.5p to 487.5p, a seven-month low, after losing some 12 per cent on Monday in the wake of its 23.5bn approach for the Asian division of stricken US insurer AIG.

Motor insurance group Admiral fell more than 3 per cent, or 42p, to 1223p, despite news of a 7 per cent hike in annual profits.

However, investors are likely to have booked profits after strong gains for the group's shares in recent weeks.

Aviva, another insurance major, was in positive territory ahead of its annual results on Thursday. Shares lifted 4p to 379.2p.

Banks also featured on the risers board as the sector's reporting season draws to a close, despite HSBC revealing lower-than-expected profits of $7.1bn (4.7bn) on Monday.

HSBC recovered some of its losses from earlier in the week to stand 18.6p higher at 700.6p, with Asian-facing group Standard Chartered up 64.5p to 1,590p ahead of its results today.

Royal Bank of Scotland rose 1.1p to 37.7p; Barclays was up 9.7p to 321.8p and Lloyds Banking Group rose 1.2p to 51.4p.

Outside the top flight, Persimmon shares rose 23.8p to 424.4p after the housebuilder posted a return to the black in 2009 and said sales were up 7 per cent since the start of the year. It is also looking for an improvement in its operating margin after an upturn in house prices.

But subprime lender Provident Financial dropped more than 5 per cent, or 52.5p, to 919.5p in the FTSE 250 as it said profits dropped by more than 2 per cent in 2009 and gave a cautious outlook on customer appetite for borrowing in 2010.

Among the biggest FTSE risers were British Airways, up 13.1p at 225.5p, broker Icap, up 15.2p at 343p, and precious metals miner Fresnillo up 35p at 817.5p.

The biggest FTSE fallers beyond Prudential and Admiral were mining giant Vedanta Resources, off 87p at 2,554p, and Rolls-Royce, down 8p at 554p.