It’s up-down-up-down this week, as the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) slipped 18 points to 6,679 by mid-morning. That comes after a late drop yesterday, and sees the index of top UK shares now down 56 points on the week and looking unlikely to extend its four-week winning run.
The reason is the same old fear of US economic stimulus being reined back, with economic forecasts looking good. We’ll have US jobs news later today, so there’s still time for another reversal.
Which shares are bucking the trend and beating the FTSE today? Here are three:
Rolls-Royce Holdings
Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE: RR) (NASDAQOTH: RYCEY.US) shares jumped 41p (3.5%) to 1,211p after the aero engineer told us in a third-quarter update that it “continues to expect modest growth in underlying revenue and good growth in underlying profit, with cash flow around breakeven“.
Since the halfway stage, Japan Airlines has ordered 31 Airbus planes powered by Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines, and Lufthansa has gone for $1.5bn’s worth of the same engines (and support) for 25 of its Airbus fleet. And the successful first test flight of Boeing’s 787-9 was powered by Trent 1000 engines.
Rolls-Royce has also snagged defence contracts with the US government worth $600m.
International Consolidated Airlines
Staying with an aviation theme, third-quarter results gave International Consolidated Airlines (LSE: IAG) shares a 20p (5.8%) boost to 369p.
The owner of British Airways and Iberia saw Q3 operating profit soar 150% to €690m, showing that it really is back to profit this year. Passenger unit revenue was up 2.3% with fuel costs down 3.4%. For the nine months, operating profit after exceptional items came in at €348m, with pre-tax profit standing at €77m, and we have positive earnings per share of 3.2 eurocents.
The firm told us it expects a full-year operating profit, before exceptionals, of about €740m.
Bovis Homes Group
Down to earth again, and Bovis Homes Group (LSE: BVS) saw a price rise of 16p (2.1%) to 778p on the occasion of its third-quarter statement.
Saying that it continues “to trade strongly“, the FTSE 250 housebuilder told us its net private reservations were up 45% up on the same quarter last year to 2,390, with an increase of 30% in net reservations per site per week. Bovis said the government’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme has added to an “already more confident” housing market.
Bovis shares are up nearly 50% over the past 12 months.