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The Dow was unable to hold above 9,000 the first time since December after better than expected ISM index sparked strong gains.

Barclays said it had a good first quarter and operating profit in the period "was maintained at a level comparable to the strong corresponding period in 2002. "Although the economic and political environment has remained challenging in 2003, the group has made a confident and disciplined start to the year and performance in the first quarter was solid," chief executive Matthew Barrett said.

Invensys has sold its Dutch software unit Baan to two U.S. private equity firms for $135 million cash. Chairman Colin Marshall has said the company overpaid for Baan when buying it at the top of the cycle. Moody's Investors Service pushed Invensys's credit rating deeper into "junk" territory -- it cut the rating two notches to Ba3 from Ba1.

FKI Plc engineering said on Tuesday its full-year profit fell more than 41 percent, citing difficult market conditions and weak demand for its airport baggage handling equipment, postal handling systems and  lifting equipment. The company's pre-tax profit was 79.2 million pounds compared with 135 million pounds a year earlier.

Carphone Warehouse reported a 22 percent rise in full-year pre-tax profit to 57.0 million pounds from 46.8 million pounds the year before, compared with forecasts ranging from 55 million to 58 million pounds and also announced it first dividend, paying 1.0 pence per share. They also announced its acquisition of mobile phone operator Orange's Hutchison Telecommunications GmbH for 46.8 million pounds,

BAA forecasts with a 3.8 percent rise in annual pre-tax profits on Tuesday and said the airline industry was still being "adversely affected" by SARS and terror threats. Profits of 524 million pounds for the year to March 31, just above the average of analysts' forecasts of 523 million.

South Staffordshire water reported a 22 percent jump in annual underlying pre-tax profit to 44.5 million pounds in line with expectations.

British Energy produced an annual loss of 4.292 billion pounds ($7 billion) on Tuesday, mainly reflecting a writedown of the value of its nuclear generating plants. The nuclear power firm generates a fifth of the UK's electricity. But it is all-but insolvent at current depressed electricity prices and survives on government support.  

Calendar All GMT	United Kingdom (F)inals (I)nterim	United States (Click Flag)	Europe & World
Tue 3rd	BAA (F) 529m exp. Carphone Warehouse (F) 57m exp.FKI (F) 83m exp. British Energy (F), BSS Group (F), Burtonwood Breweries (F), East Surrey Holdings (F), Great PortlandEstates (F), ITE Group (I), Merchant Retail (F), South Staffordshire (F), Umeco (F), Victrex (I) Barclays Trading Statement Schroders Q1 Trading Statement Nestor Healthcare (AGM)		Laurent Perrier (F) 11.00 Apr PPI m/m 0.5% exp. Europe: 11.00 Apr Unemployment Rate 8.7% exp.
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