UK utilities gain from Conservative election victory

British utilities Centrica and SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) were some of the biggest stock market winners after Britain's national election, as the Conservative victory meant they avoided the prospect of tougher regulation proposed by the main opposition Labour Party. Left-leaning Labour's pledge to freeze household bills and enforce power production auctions had wiped as much as 2.7 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) off the companies' combined stock market value in September 2013. The shares had mostly