UTILITIES

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

Aggreko has agreed a potential £160m acquisition of Brazil's Poit Energia.

Wolseley, the specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products, is expected to report an increased half yearly earnings with a more bullish outlook for the U.S. housing market on March 27.

SIG, a leading distributor of specialist building products in Europe, expects to continue to gain market share from the branches opened in recent years, but also from other growth initiatives, in spite of weak macroeconomic outlook for the UK and mainland Europe.

Fenner, a world leader in the field of reinforced polymer and textile technology, says in spite of the growing uncertainty over the macro economic outlook, trading and demand levels are in line with the group's expectations for 2012.

Aggreko, the leader in the supply of temporary power and temperature control equipment, has reported that its underlying group revenues increased 22% for the year ended December 31, 2011.

Aggreko, the rental provider of power generation and temperature control equipment, started its FY2012 with a strong position with at least 20 per cent more on hire in international power projects than at the start of 2011.

Petrofac Limited, the provider of facilities solutions to the oil and gas production and processing industry, with continued growth, high levels of backlog, exceptional revenue visibility is scheduled to report its preliminary results on March 5, 2012.

Luxury carmakers threatened by financial penalties up to £25,000 Apart from hitting airlines, the European Union's carbon emissions tax could also affect the luxury car markets by levying penalties on every car put on the roads.

British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) has got delivery of three 747-8 Freighters from Boeing. The new aircraft will be operated under a lease agreement with Global Supply Systems Limited, a 49 percent UK affiliate of Atlas Air, owner of the aircraft. The current fleet of 747-400 freighters would be replaced by the new freighters.

China is set to make a giant leap forward in its space program, when a space laboratory named Tiangong-1 will be launched into orbit this afternoon, atop a Long March 2F rocket.

Boeing's long-awaited 787 Dreamliner will be officially delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways after three years of delays.

First surfacing on Friday 23 September 2011 and therefore most likely submerged in the Eurozone crisis and its repercussions, BAE Systems is expected to announce some 3,000 redundancies in the very near future, thereby reducing its military aircraft division to some 11,000 staff. The axe is expected to fall particularly severely at the company's Warton and Brough bases.

Jaguar Land Rover is expected to announce Monday a plan to set up a £400m engine plant in the Midlands, creating more than 2,000 jobs, involving millions of pounds in investment in the supply chain.

Shares in Stagecoach were down on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the group reported a rise in pre-tax profit in the full year ended 30 April.

Shares in Berkeley were up on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the housebuilder reported a rise in pre-tax profit in the full year ended 30 April.

Transocean ltd, the owners of the deep water horizon drilling rig that was destroyed by the explosion before the initial Gulf of Mexico oil spill has claimed that the full responsibility for the disaster should be placed on BP's shoulders.

Shares in Rexam were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the packaging company announced the sale of its Closures business to Berry Plastics for $360 million.

Budget airline easyJet has again warned that coalition Government's plan to raise Air Passenger Duty (APD) and incentivise long haul travel will damage the environment and cost up to 77,000 jobs.

Shares in Ashtead Group were down on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the equipment rental company reported a rise in revenue and pre-tax profits in the full year ended 30 April.

Network Rail yesterday reported a rise in pre-tax profit and revenue in the full year 2010/11.

Shares in easyJet were down on the FTSE 250 in morning trading after the budget airline reported a rise in passenger numbers but a drop in load factor in May.

Shares in Johnson Matthey were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the chemical company reported a rise in revenue and pre-tax profit in the year ended 31 March.

Shares in Johnson Matthey were down on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading ahead of the chemical company's full year results, expected tomorrow.

Shares in Wolseley were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the plumbing product distributor reported a rise in revenue and trading profit in the third quarter ended 30 April 2011.

Shares in Severn Trent were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the utilities company reported a rise in turnover, while pre-tax profit declined significantly in the year ended 31 March.

Shares in British Land were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the property developer reported a slight rise in pre-tax profit in the full year ended 31 March.

On Friday 20 May 2011, Tata Steel announced the loss of 1,200 jobs at its Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire Bloom and Billet Mill and associated steel caster locations. This would also entail the mothballing of the Queen Bess blast furnace - Scunthorpe's blast furnaces are given names, not numbers - and Tata Steel will further consider what's best for the future of the Billet Caster. Nearly 400 jobs are to go at the company's Teeside sites and the total number of job cuts will represent a loss ...

EasyJet has condemned plans by the Coalition government to change the rules on Air Passenger Duty (APD), saying that the proposals will increase CO2 emissions while harming the economy.