Why Unilever plc, IMI plc and Polymetal International PLC Should Beat The FTSE 100 Today

Unilever plc (LON: ULVR), IMI plc (LON: IMI) and Polymetal International PLC (LON: POLY) are lifted by good news.

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The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) picked up just seven points yesterday to close at 6,837, but today it’s gained a further 18 points to 6,855 approaching noon to edge ever closer to the record of 6,876 points set last May — we’re now just 21 points short of seeing a new 14-year high for the UK’s top index.

Upbeat news from some of our biggest companies is providing the impetus. Here are three from the FTSE indices gaining ground today:

Unilever

Unilever shares have been dropping  a bit of late, but they picked up 85p (3.5%) to 2,522p on the back of results for the full year to December 2013.

Although reported turnover was down 3% to €49.8bn, the maker of household products told us that underlying sales were up 4.3%, with emerging market sales up 8.7%. Core earnings per share picked up 3% to €1.58, and there’s to be a fourth quarterly dividend of 26.9 eurocents per share for a full-year payment of 109.49c — that’s a yield of 3.6%.

IMI

IMI (LSE: IMI) shares gained 14p (1%) to 1,565p by late morning, after the diversified engineer announced a plan to return £620m to shareholders. The company intends to pay a special dividend of 200p per share, and also intends to consolidate its shares on a seven for eight basis to try to keep the price at around the same level after the payment (and yes, that sounds pointless to me too).

IMI investors have had a pretty good 12 months, with their shares gaining approximately 35%. It comes after three years of earnings per share rises, and the trend looks set to continue for the next three years according to current forecasts.

Polymetal International

Polymetal International (LSE: POLY) has not had a good year, with its share price down more than 45% over 12 months. But today the gold and silver miner operating in Russia and Kazakhstan got a boost from a fourth-quarter production update. Polymetal said it has “exceeded its original annual production guidance“, with the production of 1.29 Moz of gold equivalent for a 21% rise on the previous year — gold equivalent production in the fourth quarter was up 37%. The firm reiterated its guidance of 1.3 Moz in 2014 and 1.35 Moz in 2015.

The share price rose by 15p (2.6%) to 585p.

Should you invest, the value of your investment may rise or fall and your capital is at risk. Before investing, your individual circumstances should be assessed. Consider taking independent financial advice.

Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.

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