Taylor Wimpey

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LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - British housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.L) swung to a first-half profit and said trading is satisfactory, however a slide in house prices and consumer confidence will likely turn up the heat again on the builders.

The company kicked off first-half results from British housebuilders by posting a pretax profit before exceptional items of 19.6 million pounds ($31.0 million), compared with a loss of 68.9 million in the same period last year.

After exceptional items, its profit reduced for the six months to 7.5 million pounds.

It also announced a material improvement in operating margins.

"Although wider economic uncertainty remains, current trading is satisfactory and our forward order books and cautious approach to land valuation provide protection against downside scenarios," said the group in a statement on Tuesday.

House price growth has stalled in recent months, with a 0.6 percent drop in June, the third successive monthly fall, according to mortgage lender Halifax. [iD:nLDE6670IE]

Taylor Wimpey signalled in May that it completed 4,650 homes in the first half, against 4,702 homes in the same period last year, at an average selling price of 167,000 pounds, up from 153,000. [iD:nLDE65O13E]

Shares in Taylor Wimpey closed at 28.52 pence, valuing the company at 847.2 million pounds

Yet another company reporting a good set of results.

The financials , industrials , miners all seem to be beating forecasts , even the builders have returned to profit. Seems to me the only firms who are lowering their expectations are retailers and those who do work within the public sector.