BAE hits five-year high on order hopes BAE Systems has been standing out in a flat London market. The defence contractor hit a five-year high on Thursday, having jumped 46 per cent since the collapse of its botched merger with EADS less than a year ago. The rerating, say analysts, has been partly in anticipation of Eurofighter Typhoon orders arriving before the new year. Feedback from this month's DSEI arms fair suggested BAE management was increasingly confident that the United Arab Emirates would select Eurofighter - a potentially pivotal deal for the region given the UAE's links with Bahrain and Qatar - and that Saudi Arabia would finalise its long-delayed order for up to 72 new jets. "The market previously valued BAE as a company facing a decade of decline," said Espirito Santo. Now it is assuming a decade of flat performance. Winning Eurofighter export contracts had the potential to eliminate BAE's "defence stock discount" entirely, justifying a share price above 600p, it argued. BAE rose 1.5 per cent to 468p. The wider market flatlined for a fourth successive day, with the FTSE 100 up 14.06 points or 0.2 per cent at 6,565.59. Power utilities once again led the fallers as analysts tried to quantify the risks of growing political pressure to freeze bills. "We think the industry needs to raise prices by circa 10 per cent in the coming four weeks, and delaying price rises will mean neither SSE nor Centrica can make consensus forecasts," said Credit Suisse. Centrica fell 2.3 per cent to 366.9p, with JPMorgan Cazenove downgrading, while SSE fell 1.9 per cent to £14.60. Ladbrokes dropped 7.6 per cent to 173.8p after its third profit warning of the year. It blamed delays switching to gambling software provided by Playtech, down 3 per cent to 721p, as well as unfavourable results and disruption among 200 staff threatened with redundancy. The delays meant Ladbrokes would have as little as six months to win back business from rivals ahead of a UK tax change in December next year. "We think that it may now be too late for Ladbrokes" digital business to achieve the scale that we see as key to competing effectively in the UK online market post the tax change," said JPMorgan. Thomas Cook, this year's second-best-performing large cap, drifted 6.6 per cent to 145.3p after it said winter bookings had been slower than last year. A more reassuring statement from Tui Travel lifted its stock 3.9 per cent to 370.4p. Compass took on 2.3 per cent to 849.5p on a pre-close update from the caterer showing a slowing decline in European sales. Egyptian gold miner Centamin rallied 3.8 per cent to 47.3p on the back of "buy" advice from Davy. With Egypt back under what appeared to be sustainable military control, "it is increasingly difficult to see how Centamin's licences would be taken away," said Davy. It expected a result in Centamin's appeal against the annulment of its licence by early next year. Man Group rallied 4.4 per cent to 87.3p as chief executive Manny Roman gave a presentation to a Merrill Lynch conference, and in spite of its benchmark AHL hedge fund hitting its lowest value since 2007. African Minerals surged 44 per cent to 225p after Tewoo, a Chinese metals trader, agreed to buy a stake in the Sierra Leone iron ore miner in exchange for an offtake agreement. The $1bn deal was seen to take pressure off African's balance sheet, which burnt short sellers that had been holding nearly 7 per cent of its stock.