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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LLCF who wrote (168444)	5/28/2002 6:47:07 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Raggae Caribbean flavor to the London Market today... We're jammin, jammin, jammin, aeh oh... Outstanding result from Vodaphone "...initially positive reception..." news.ft.com London blue chips lifted by Vodafone Vince Heaney, FT Investor Published: May 28 2002 8:50 \| Last Updated: May 28 2002 8:50 London's blue chips opened higher on Tuesday as the market gave an initially positive reception to full-year results from mobile phone operator Vodafone. Following a late sharp fall on Monday, Vodafone shares traded 6.2 per cent stronger on Tuesday. The bounce came after the company reported full-year proportionate ebitda of 10.09bn, up from consensus forecasts for £9.8bn to £9.9bn. And impairment charges of £6bn on non-mobile group assets were lower than many had expected. The charges related Arcor, Cegetel, Japan Telecom, Grupo Iusacell, China Mobile, but not Mannesmann. Analysts had expected a writedown of between £10bn and £25bn, with mobile assets acquired from Mannesmann in Italy and Germany included. Sir Christopher Gent, Vodafone's CEO said he expects 10 per cent net customer growth this year. Revenues are seen growing at a double-digit rate in the current year, with ebitda margins also set to increase. Vodafone's gains gave the blue-chip index a boost in early trade. The FTSE 100 started 0.3 per cent stronger at 5,153.4 and the FTSE Techmark was 0.1 per cent higher at 1,030.8. US markets were closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. Kingston Communications , the telecoms operator, was quoted 3.3 per cent higher after it reported a leap in full-year turnover and earnings on Tuesday but said losses also grew more than four-fold. It added that demand for communications services continued to grow from both new and existing customers. High-street banking group Barclays reported first-quarter operating profit rose from the same period a year ago, and that it had made a "solid start" in 2002. However, the shares fell 1.9 per cent after the bank acknowledged its total operating costs had increased "moderately" compared with the first quarter of 2001 and said bad-debt provisions had also grown, "reflecting the generally more difficult business environment". IG warns Spread-betting service IG Index slumped by 34.5 per cent after it warned that full-year results were likely to be below market expectations. The company said it was hit by a sharp fall in trading income. IG Index expects full-year pre-tax profits in the range of £12.7m-£13.7m. TV company Carlton Communications reported a narrower first-half pre-tax loss of £179.4m from £277.3m. The result beat the loss estimate of £246.3m from brokers Lehman Brothers. Carlton also said it saw early signs of a recovery in demand for advertising and the shares gained 2.3 per cent. Publishing and media group Emap rose 0.6 per cent after it reported a 6 per cent rise in pre-tax profit before exceptionals to £151m. But including exceptional items the group reported a pre-tax loss of £69m, compared with a £527m profit last year. Emap said it saw little evidence of real recovery in radio advertising. Computer graphics hardware group Imagination Technologies reported a full-year pre-tax loss of £4.6m, compared with a profit of £3.3m in 2001 in what it described as a "brutal" market. However, the company expects to broaden its revenue base and improve results and announced it had won 7m in licensing contracts in the fourth quarter. The shares were quoted flat on the open. Software group Kewill Systems fell 1.8 per cent after it reported a consolidated full-year pre-tax loss of £57.64m, compared with £3.28m a year ago. However, the company said group operating performance improved significantly in the second half. See more on Kewill