Chemring (LON: CHG), Northern Petroleum (LON: NOP) and Balfour Beatty (LON: BBY) all rise.
After soaring yesterday and smashing the 6,000 level, which it had been repeatedly brushing up against during the latter part of 2012, the FTSE 100 (UKX) is having a bit of a breather today, just two points down on 6,025. Still, thanks to the US fiscal cliff deal, the markets are off to a good start this year.
Of course, in the long run, it is the performance of companies, not politicians, that matters. Here are three constituents of the FTSE indices that are on the way up today:
Chemring
Chemring Group (LSE: CHG) shares gained a nice 13p (5.4%), after the company announced the appointment of a new finance director and a new director of Human Resources. Steve Bowers, formerly finance director at Umeco, will taker over the role from interim finance director Nigel Young on 7 January, with Jim Devine taking up the HR position on the same day.
Any improvement in the price has to be good news, after the defence engineer's shares slumped in October -- after a recent upwards blip, the price is down around 35% over the past 12 months.
Northern Petroleum
It was good news for explorer Northern Petroleum (LSE: NOP) today, with the share price rising 1.3p (2.4%) to 55.3p on news that the company's GM-ES-3 well in the Guyane Maritime Permit was spudded on 29 December. Nothern only has a small interest in the licence, which is operated principally by Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Tullow Oil.
Northern Petroleum shares have not had a great year, falling around 30% over the past 12 months.
Balfour Beatty
Shares in infrastructure engineer Balfour Beatty (LSE: BBY) gained a fairly modest 3.6p (1.3%) to reach 284p, after telling us it has acquired Subsurface Group, an American energy storage business.
Balfour Beatty's shares famously slumped in November after the firm published warnings about its markets and likely performance, but since then they have slowly been creeping back, regaining around 20% so far.
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> Alan Oscroft does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
