Tuesday April 29, 02:49 PM
Sector movers: BP and Shell top forecasts
LONDON (ShareCast) - Oil giants BP (LSE: BP.L - news) and Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS
- news) both trumped market forecasts with their earnings this morning. BP saw replacement cost profit up 48% to $6.58bn compared with expectations of about $5bn. "This result benefited from higher oil and gas realisations and a higher contribution from the gas marketing and trading and LNG businesses," said the group. It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) also included higher income from equity-accounted entities, primarily from TNK-BP, Russia's third largest oil producer, due to higher prices. BP controls half of TNK-BP, which saw net income rise to $752m from $162m previously. The quarterly dividend was raised 31% to 13.525 cents per share. Reported production for the quarter was 3.91m barrels, flat compared with the first quarter of 2007. After adjusting for the impact of lower entitlement in its production-sharing agreements (PSAs), production was more than 5% higher BP said. Royal Dutch Shell's first quarter 2008 earnings rose 12%, well ahead of forecasts, thanks to increased oil and gas prices. Net income for the period was $7.8bn on a current cost basis compared with $6.9bn. First quarter reported income jumped 25% to $9bn "Good operating performance, combined with increased oil and gas prices, offset the impact of downstream conditions in the first quarter 2008," said chief executive Jeroen van der Veer. Oil and gas production, including oil sands production, for the period was 3.52mof oil equivalent per day (boe/d) versus 3.51m in the same quarter last year. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) equity sales volumes rose 6% to a record 3.51m tonnes Miners are not sharing in the oil sector's buoyancy though, with copper prices falling amid concerns over US demand. Kazakhstan's ENRC is joined in the bottom 10 of Footsie (news) constituents by compatriot Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ.L - news) , plus Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , Rio Tinto (Frankfurt: 855018 - news) and BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT.L - news) . Top performing sectors so far today
Technology Hardware & Equipment 221.70 +6.23%
Oil & Gas Producers 8,683.20 +4.82%
Industrial Transportation 3,008.40 +0.93%
Aeronautics and Defence NULL 0.00%
Alternative Investment Instruments NULL 0.00% Bottom performing sectors so far today
Mining 26,507.40 -2.84%
Construction & Materials 4,676.60 -1.90%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,804.80 -1.64%
Life Insurance (LINS.PK - news) 5,040.60 -1.59%
Automobiles & Parts 4,454.00 -1.57%
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