London Shares Open Lower, Imperial Tobacco Falls Post FY; NY Ends Higher

Source from:  LONDON, Oct. 30, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) 11/01/2007

UK blue-chips opened lower, giving away some of yesterday's gains, with Imperial Tobacco falling back after in-line full year results this morning, while US stocks finished higher yesterday on hopes of a rate cut this week. At 8.08 am, the FTSE 100 index was down 28.50 points to 6,677.50, with the FTSE 250 index losing 71.30 to 11,481.50. In the US, Wall Street advanced on Monday as investors, undeterred by record oil prices, speculated that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this week to boost the slow economy and lure more buyers into the troubled credit markets. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 63.56, or 0.46 pct, to 13,870.26. Broader stock indicators also gained. The Standard & Poor's (NYSE:MHP) 500 index rose 5.70, or 0.37 pct, to 1,540.98, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 13.25, or 0.47 pct, to 2,817.44. Meanwhile, in Asia this morning, the Japanese Nikkei ended the morning down 117.44 points or 0.7 pct at 16,580.64, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 39.02 points, or 0.1 pct, at 31,625.92 by midday. Oil retreated in Asian trade after spiking to an historic high of over 93 usd on geopolitical concerns in the Middle East. Earlier today, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, was 84 cents lower at 92.69 usd a barrel from its record close of 93.53 dollars in US trading Monday. Brent North Sea crude for December delivery dropped 71 cents to 89.61 usd. It hit a record high of 93.80 usd yesterday. In London, Imperial Tobacco featured early on, down 33 pence at 2,410 after full-year pretax hit analysts' consensus estimate, coming in at 1.237 bln stg from 1.168 bln stg last time. The company reported full-year adjusted operating profit up 9 pct to 1.475 bln stg, and full-year dividend up 12 pct to 69.5 pence. On the upside, Schroders added 9 to 1,485 after it reported a 53 pct rise in third-quarter pretax profit to 98.1 mln stg from 64 mln stg a year earlier. The UK fund manager said pretax profit for the first nine months of 2007 rose 45 pct to 283.7 mln stg, up from 196.3 mln stg a year earlier. tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com jb1/sal Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News. Enditem