Balfour Beatty says trading strong

LONDON (Reuters) - Construction firm, Balfour Beatty (BALF.L), bucked the trend of bad news in the sector on Wednesday, saying trading in the year to date has remained strong despite fears over a slowdown in commercial property markets.

The group, which specialises in public-private partnerships (PPP) where private sector firms help provide public services and other infrastructure investments, said its overall future work pipeline has grown substantially.

"We anticipate that order intake and trading performance will remain strong throughout the year and that we will make good progress in 2008," the group said in a statement.

Balfour said its confirmed order book stood at 11.8 billion pounds at the end of May, an increase of 400 million pounds since the end of 2007, excluding orders arising from acquisitions made this year.

"In a sector where the doom and gloom gets worse by the day, Balfour Beatty report upbeat trading," said Panmure analyst Andy Brown in response to the statement.

Shares in Balfour have outperformed the FTSE All Share Construction & Materials Index by 13 percent since the start of the year as shares in housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) and Barratt Developments (BDEV.L) plummeted.

They were down 1.3 percent, however, at 405-1/4 pence by 10 a.m.

Brown said, with continuing caution around the sector, the update, while positive, "does not feel like a big enough catalyst to get the share price moving".

Panmure has a "sell" recommendation and 420 pence price target on the stock.