LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE ) climbed back above 6,300 this morning, only to fall back to 6,280 by 8:10 a.m. EST for a two-point loss on the day. It seems the market suddenly remembered that the eurozone still exists and has some economic problems.
So which individual constituents of the FTSE indexes have been fighting to keep the average in the green? Here are three being boosted by news today:
Hargreaves Lansdown (LSE: HL )
Hargreaves Lansdown shares are up again, rising 8.4% to 796 pence on the day of the firm's interim report for the six months to Dec. 31. Chief executive Ian Gorham made a nice point in saying, "Hargreaves Lansdown's results demonstrate that a reputable company can, even in this climate, add genuine benefit to the U.K. economy and public, while paying its taxes in full."
Revenue was up 24% to 140 million pounds, with pre-tax profit up 30% to 94 million pounds -- both records for the company. Assets under administration now amount to 30.4 billion pounds, a rise of 30% on the same stage last year and up 16% since June.
Homeserve (LSE: HSV )
Homeserve shares perked up 1% to 239 pence, continuing the recovery that started last summer. Today it was an interim update that did the trick, telling us that profit for the year ending March should be in line with expectations.
That suggests a fall in earnings per share of around 18% as the company settles itself as a smaller business, but that does put the shares on what looks like an undemanding price-to-earnings ratio of 10. And there's a dividend yield of 4.7% currently forecast by City analysts.
Flybe (LSE: FLYB )
Shares in Flybe Group have soared 22% to 55 pence after the budget airline announced a deal with Ryanair Holdings, as part of a deal proposed to the European competition regulators related to Ryanair's attempted acquisition of Aer Lingus.
Should the takeover go ahead, Flybe will take over a number of routes and aircraft to form Flybe Ireland. The proposal, for which the regulators required at least 50% acceptance, has already been given the nod by 64% of Flybe shareholders.
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