Market overview: 16 May

• After a series of successful oil discoveries oil giant Tullow was sounding understandably pleased with itself in its interim management statement.

• A drop in trading volumes due to ongoing economic fears has hit revenues and profits at the interdealer broker ICAP (IC COMMENT).

• Catering firm Compass posted results that were slightly better than expected, driven by new business wins and a high rate of contract retention (IC COMMENT).

• Full year profits tumbled at real estate investment trust Land Securities as growth in property values stalled in the second half of its financial year (IC COMMENT).

• Housebuilder Bovis said trading in the 19 weeks to 11 May 2012 has been strong while private net reservations rose by a third to 783 year-on-year.

• Natural gas companies BG Group and Ophir Energy have hailed their fifth consecutive gas discovery in Tanzania with the Mzia-1 well in Block 1 showing 'significant potential upside'.

• The first financial metric in utility SSE 's full year results is the dividend, underlining the stock's attraction as a high yielder, but the amount paid out is likely to slightly disappoint the market (IC COMMENT).

• Oil and gas engineering firm Lamprell has seen its share price plunge after it warned that its performance is being severely hampered by the paucity of specialised jack-up rig components (IC COMMENT).

• C&C Group, the Magners cider brewer, posted a rise in pre-tax profits despite a decline in revenues during a challenging year for the company (IC COMMENT).

• Cinema chain Cineworld said total revenues increased 6.3 per cent for the 19 weeks to 10 May 2012 and remains confident about delivering growth in the year ahead (IC COMMENT).

• Mining group African Barrick Gold has increased its royalty payment to the Tanzanian government by an additional voluntary one per cent on top of the three per cent rate stipulated in the firm's mineral development agreement.

• High street baker Greggs has used its latest market update to attack the "unworkable" VAT rise the government has planned for freshly baked food.

• Digital sports media company, Perform Group , is to acquire Swiss firm RunningBall, a real-time sports data provider.

• Online gambling firm bwin.party said profits were steady in the first quarter of 2012 but it had been hit by weakness in its poker and bingo markets.

• CRH, the international building materials company, has transferred its shareholding in Secil, the Portuguese cement producer, to Semapa, its former joint venture partner.

• Central European coal miner New World Resources was hit by falling revenues from thermal coal and coke in the first quarter.

• Production levels soared at oil and gas producer SOCO International in the first four months of the year.

• International Public Partnerships said its portfolio of public infrastructure investments projects continues to perform in line with expectations in 2012.

• Sir John Buchanan, the Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director on the Vodafone board, is to retire after the mobile phone network giant's annual general meeting on July 24th.

• Active Risk , a risk management software solution provider, revealed a loss for the year ended March 31st after a decline in revenues and an increase in costs combined to deliver the negative result.

• Alliance Boots, the parent company of High Street of health and beauty chain Boots, caught a cold last year as profits fell on the back of a cut in governmental reimbursement for generic medicines and reduced sales of cold and flu products.

• Education and publishing group Pearson has bought Utah-based IT examining business Certiport from private equity firm Spire Capital Partners, expanding its professional testing business, Pearson VUE.

• It was a good year for information and communications technology firm Datatec after it posted a rise in revenue and and pre-tax profit, boosted by a strong performance in Brazil.

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