Naresh Kumar

Bodycote Plc, the largest thermal processing services provider, has announced that it has acquired the heat treatment business of Curtiss-Wright Corporation for a total consideration of US$ 52 million.

British house prices rise for first month in nearly two years says March Hometrack survey

The worldwide market for power semiconductors used in LED lighting is projected to cross $3 billion by 2016, says IMS Research, a leading independent provider of market research and consultancy to the global electronics industry.

The outlook for the emerging markets look mixed though there are some common premises which prevail, including low rate of global trade and core inflation. Open small and medium sized economies with sluggish growth are more exposed to the low rate of global trade.

Strong performance from foods businesses will compensate for more challenging trading in Dairies division, says Dairy Crest Group, the UK's leading dairy foods company. In its pre-close trading update for the year ending 31 March 2012, the group said its cost cuts were on track to meet its annual savings target of £20 million.

Driven by the benefits of self-help programme, QinetiQ Group, the provider of technical advice to customers in the global aerospace, defence and security markets, says it is on course to deliver its expectations for the financial year ending 31 March 2012.

The specialty food ingredients and solutions group, Tate & Lyle has reported a strong performance for the fourth quarter which is in line with its expectations driven by the robust growth in speciality food ingredients sales volumes.

The distributor of electronics and maintenance products, Electrocomponents Plc is on track to deliver record full-year sales in excess of £1.2 billion at a growth rate of around 7 percent driven by international and UK growth.

The British consumer confidence unexpectedly fell to a three-month low in March as Britons grew increasingly worried about the outlook for their finances and for the economy as a whole.

QinetiQ Group, the provider of technical advice to customers in the global aerospace, defence and security markets, says market uncertainties are making it difficult to visualise outlook beyond the current year. However, the board is confident that the group is able to build significant value over the medium-term.

With the widen international businesses, established strategy and well-built balance sheet, Electrocomponents, the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products, is investing in its planned proposals and being aware of the ongoing economic situation, it is continuing to maintain tight cost control, therefore the group anticipates current second half operating costs to be in line with the second half of FY 2011.

Driven by higher volumes and sales growth across all product categories, Tate & Lyle Plc, the provider of specialty food ingredients and solutions, expects profits for the FY 2011 to be more heavily weighted towards the first half than usual, mainly due to the exceptionally strong performance from co-products during the first half.

In spite of tough trading conditions, the clothing retailer, Moss Bros Group has continued to make great progress in turning its business around and reported a rise of 2.5 percent in its full year like-for-like sales.

Despite difficult economic conditions, Hilton Food Group, has reported a rise of 13.6 percent in its full year revenue to £981.3 million, up from £864.2 million in 2010, which was driven by the new facility in Denmark and the recovery of higher raw material meat prices.

Online bookings boost summer volumes, North Africa travel remains soft

Biggest monthly drop since 2010 as tax break for first-time buyers ends

Homeserve Plc, the provider of home emergency and repair services to over 4.9 million customers internationally, has braced up to perform well for the current year and beyond by addressing the root causes behind the sales, marketing and complaints handling issues in the Britain.

Imperial Tobacco Group, the world's fourth-biggest cigarette maker, is focused to deliver excellent growth in earnings and also believes that it is well- placed to build on its success.

With over 200 brands in 180 countries and more than 30 million customers, TUI Travel, the leisure travel company expects to see greater share of online bookings in 2012 and is scheduled to release its pre-close trading update on Thursday.

Driven by an increase in gold sales by 52 percent, Petropavlovsk, the Russian gold exploration company, has reported revenue of US$1.3 billion for the full-year 2011, which is more than double the group's revenue of US$612 million in 2010.

Oil and gas exploration group lifts earnings as Bulgarian, Egyptian fields improve

UK Pizza chain delivers 9% sales growth

Petropavlovsk, the Russian gold exploration company, has increased the production target for the FY 2012 by 11 percent to 680,000oz compared to FY 2011 and a compounded yearly growth rate of 26 percent since the group first listed in 2002.

Melrose Resources, the oil and gas exploration, development and production company remains on track to achieve its target to reduce financial gearing to below 60 percent by this year end.

Domino's Pizza UK & Ireland, the holder of the master franchise for Domino's Pizza Inc, remains in good health and ready for the challenges ahead to deliver another successful year of growth.

Catering Group says challenging market conditions will slow revenue growth in first half of year

Copper miner lifts dividend as revenues, but cash costs remain an investor concern

World's biggest building supplies company sees US strength, but Europe slowing

EG Solutions, the back office optimisation software company, has announced that it secured a further services contract from an existing UK enterprise customer in the financial services sector for the value of approximately £340,000, which will appear in the current financial year results.