Great Titchfield Street, London -- You may have noticed a new look to the Fool over the weekend. Our news service is changing slightly as well. The Breakfast Fool now consists of a summary of breaking news stories, which should hit your screens before 9am each weekday. About a hour later this will be followed by the first commentary piece of the day.
The market dropped in early trading, following a dip from Vodafone AirTouch(LSE: VOD). From today the mobile mammoth takes up its full weighting of 13% in the FTSE 100 Index. And today is also the day when Royal Bank of Scotland(LSE: RBOS) will officially tie the knot with NatWest (LSE: NWB).
The latest interim results from NXT (LSE: NTX) hit the streets this morning. The group now has 166 licensees. Although licence income was just £0.5m, forty new companies are expected to start producing NXT's products this year. The group's latest product SoundVu will be released to licensees in the second quarter. But the lack of news on a US listing seemed to disappoint investors as the shares lost 122.5p or 5.4% to 2160p.
Acquisition hungry Photobition (LSE: PHB) checked in with an increase in half year profits at £8m this morning. Although these were below expectations the shares still rose 9p or 2.1% to 441.5p.
Alliance & Leicester(LSE: AL.) continued the banking results season with a 10% increase in pre tax profits to £500m. Most of the increase came from the group's Personal Banking division. The shares added 14p or 2.8% to 516p.
Small office provider, Workspace Group(LSE: WKP) unveiled third quarter profits that were 40% higher at £2.7m. Workspace provides 5.7m sq ft of flexible accommodation to over 3,000 small businesses. The shares climbed 10p or 1.3% to 790p.
Infobank International (LSE: IBI) have signed an agreement with IT solutions provider Parity (LSE: PTY). Infobank's InTrade 'e-hub' will be used in the utility sector. Infobank added 60p or 2.4% to 2597.5p whilst Parity leapt 57p or 12.1% to 528.5p.
The financial software group Royalblue (LSE: RYB) also piled in with full year figures this morning. Turnover rose to £40m and pre tax profits to £6.5m. Shares in Royalblue put on 230p or 11.9% to 2162.5p valuing at group at over £630m.
Finally, Freeserve (LSE: FRE) announced the launch of an ADSL trial in London and Manchester. It will gives access at 512 kbps and cost £50 per month, which does not sound that 'Free'. ITN and Virgin have been signed up as partners. Freeserve was up just 0.75p or 0.1% to 770p.
