After closing last week on a 99-point fall to extend its losing streak to five weeks, the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) has carried on in the same direction today, dropping 11 points to 6,541 approaching midday. It looks like it’s going to be a pretty bearish Christmas at this rate.
But there should be some cheery shareholders today, with a number of shares doing well. Here are three from the indices on the rise:
WPP
It was only a small one, but a 8p (0.6%) rise for WPP could be enough the beat a weak FTSE today, after the advertising and marketing giant announced an acquisition.
Its digital marketing subsidiary 24/7 Media has acquired Crystal Semantics, which is apparently an expert in semantic advertising. And though the meaning of that might not be immediately clear, apparently it’s something to do with matching advertising to the meaning of a web page’s contents.
WPP’s share price is up more than 50% over the past year.
Inmarsat
Not many companies get to announce they’ve successfully put a satellite into space, but that is the job of Inmarsat (LSE: ISAT).
The firm’s first Global Xpress satellite, Inmarsat-5 F1, has been successfully sent skywards from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The next stage is to get it to lift itself into a geostationary orbit in several stages, with testing ready to start by February.
Inmarsat shares have not flown quite so high, but are still just ahead of the FTSE over 12 months with a gain of around 15%.
Kentz
Construction services firm Kentz Corporation is our biggest winner of the three, with a 55p (9.5%) gain on the day so far and a rise of nearly 65% over 12 months.
This morning’s boost came from news of a planned acquisition, with Kentz lining up the Valerus oil and gas surface facilities business in a $435m cash deal. The acquisition should provide Kentz with better project integration potential, a more diversified client base, and wider global penetration with a strong presence in US markets.