By Steve Goldstein
British stocks fell back from 15-month highs on Wednesday,
ending a streak of five winning sessions on the final full trading
day of 2009.
After finishing Tuesday at the highest closing level since Sept.
8, 2008, the U.K. FTSE 100 fell 0.7% to close at 5,397.86. The
index has climbed 21.7% this year.
The London Stock Exchange closes early on Thursday on New Year's
Eve, though traders weren't exactly rushing to place orders, with
can maker Rexam the only large-cap component trading with average
volumes.
British Land rose 0.6%,, while Segro lost 0.2%. British Land is
buying Segro's 50% interest in the Surrey Quays Shopping Center, in
southeastern London, and Clifton Moor Retail Park in York, for 26.9
million pounds.
The holder of the other 50% is supermarket giant Tesco , which
pays 52% of the rent on the properties and has four other ventures
with British Land.
Segro has been selling its retail property holdings since 2004
to focus on flexible business space, and Segro said it's now
completed those disposals.
Petrofac rose 1.9%. The firm has signed a deal with Turkmengas,
the state-owned natural-gas firm of Turkmenistan, to provide
engineering services on a gas-processing facility. The first phase
of the contract is valued at $100 million, and the second part of
the contract would be to develop the facility, infrastructure and
pipeline.
The total contract could be worth $4 billion, according to the
country's state information agency. UAE, Chinese and Korean firms
also won contracts as part of the $10 billion plan from
Turkmenistan.
Sticking to Central Asia, Kazakhmys rose 0.4%. The copper miner
said it has secured $2.7 billion of financing from China
Development Bank and a Kazakh sovereign wealth fund. Kazakhmys said
the money will be used to fund growth projects, including $2
billion to develop its Boschekul copper project.
Outside the FTSE 100, GeoPark Holdings rose 5% after it drilled
an oil well in Chile to a depth of 2,187 meters and found a flow
rate of 650 barrels of oil a day.
Peru energy group Maple Energy fell 8% after selling 16 million
shares, or roughly 15% of the company, to institutional investors
to raise $11.8 million. The funds will be used in part for an
ethanol project.