Home Retail Group – the parent company of Homebase and Argos – sent its share price upward this morning by raising profit expectations for the second time in three months.

The company’s share price was trading up 2 per cent to 273.0 pence as at 0940 hrs after the company announced sales of £4,347 million for the 52 weeks to 27 February – ahead of analyst expectations.

Group chief executive, Terry Duddy, also told investors to expect a better performance than predicted in its last market update just eight weeks ago.

He said, ‘Group benchmark profit before tax for the year will be around £290 million, slightly ahead of current market expectations. This is a good outcome to a challenging year, and is combined with excellent cash generation.

‘The final short trading period reported today saw volatile trading patterns, making it difficult to assess any changes in underlying consumer demand. For the new financial year, we continue to plan cautiously given the uncertain economic outlook, but do so from our position of operational and financial strength.’

Like-for-like sales were down across the group by a negligible amount although total sales were up by 1.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Arbuthnot Banking Group also nudged upwards after the bank confirmed it had gone from a pre-tax loss of £1.3 million in the first half of the year to a second half pre tax profit of £1.2 million.

The company said this was the result of improving corporate activity and market conditions, noting a considerable rise in the profitability of its corporate finance division with income up 28 per cent to £9.2 million from £7.2 million in 2008.

Henry Angest, chairman and chief executive, said, ‘Arbuthnot Banking Group looks forward with confidence to 2010 and beyond, provided the economy holds up and the UK does not experience a double dip. We are in the hands of the politicians.’

 

The Share Centre

Top ten trades

Thursday 11 March

 
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Buy

1. Gulf Keystone Petroleum

2. UK Coal

3. Barclays

4. Desire Petroleum

5. Aviva

6. BP

7. Lloyds Banking Group

8. National Grid

9. Royal Bank of Scotland Group

10. MAN Group

 

Sell

1. Lloyds Banking Group

2. Barclays

3. Royal Bank of Scotland Group

4. BP

5. Solo Oil

6. Vodafone Group

7. West China Cement

8. Tullett Prebon

6. Gulf Keystone Petroleum

10. Aminex

 

Buy to sell ratio: 51:49