Market News - London

LONDON (ShareCast) - Hopes that the UK might follow the US in a mad dash higher have been unfulfilled, with London off to a hesitant start, despite some positive economic data.

Economic data released Friday shows that UK consumers are more confident now than at any time in the last 21 months. The GfK/NOP consumer confidence index improved to -13 in October, the best number since January 2008. That's up from -16 the month before, beats forecasts for a read of -14 and is 23 points better than this time last year.

Meanwhile, UK house prices are showing a year on year increase for the first time since March 2008, according to the latest Nationwide house price survey, which indicated that the average price of a house rose 0.4% in October to £162,038.

Advertising giant WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) also cheered the market by saying overall conditions are "less worse". The advertising sector is usually one of the last to emerge from a recession, so signs of a recovery will be welcomed. WPP saw a marked improvement in profitability in the third quarter, while revenues rose by 16.7% to £2.007bn.

Banking stocks remain in favour after yesterday's announcement from Lloyds Banking (LSE: LLOY.L - news) that it hopes to be able to raise enough cash to pull out of the government's asset protection scheme. Lloyds and the other part-nationalised bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) , both add to yesterday's chunky gains.

Directories group Yell, which yesterday extended the deadline for its refinancing to 5pm that evening, jumped after it said that it has made significant progress over the last 24 hours and is now awaiting acceptances from the final two lenders.

Iron ore producer Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO.L - news) has announced that it will pay an interim dividend of 3.3 cents a share, having deferred the decision when it delivered interim results in August due to market uncertainty.

Rolls-Royce has won a $720m order to supply Trent 700 engines for ten Virgin Atlantic Airbus A330 aircraft. Deliveries for the planes, six of which have been ordered by Virgin Atlantic and four by aircraft leasing company AerCap, will begin in 2011. The contract includes long-term TotalCare service support.

Elsewhere in aerospace, aero-engineer and defence systems group Meggitt (LSE: MGGT.L - news) is trading in line with expectations and said it has seen signs of stabilisation. In the last four months the group said it seen signs of stabilisation in the key macro drivers of its civil aftermarket, namely, air traffic and the number of landings made by the business jet fleet.

F&C Asset Management's third quarter got a lift from surging stock markets and favourable currency movements, sending assets under management up 12.3% during the period.

South African gold miner Harmony Gold lifted production of the yellow metal by 6% against expectations of 4% in the quarter to September 30 but felt the pinch of a stronger rand.

The government's car scrappage scheme has done Lookers (LSE: LOOK.L - news) a big favour, helping the car dealer deliver third quarter results "significantly" ahead of both budget and last year's effort.

Port operator Forth Ports (LSE: FPT.L - news) said trading within its ports division is in line with expectations with new business initiatives and tonnage increases in some areas helping to reinforce the resilience of its business in a difficult market.

Bus and train operator National Express (LSE: NEX.L - news) is back in the news again after yesterday's collapse of merger talks with rival Stagecoach. The company's largest shareholder, the Cosmen family, expressed concern about the company's lack of a "well-defined strategy" to address "broader and long-term issues" faced by the company.

'We are greatly concerned that the board risks losing further value for all shareholders by not keeping the company's options open and we would urge the board to seek independent financial and legal advice to assist it in this review process,' a statement from the family said.