Housebuilders are continuing to please the City with encouraging trading results which also reveal a strong start to 2012. <br> <br> Persimmon, who posted a 55% pre-tax profit increase for its full year, saw its shares jump 18% after it announced a programme to return £1.9 billion of surplus cash via dividends to shareholders over 9.5 years. Its weekly private sales rate per site for the first eight weeks of 2012 was 22% ahead of the previous year. <br> <br> Redrow and Bovis revealed increases in pre-tax profits of 80% and 74% respectively. Redrow saw its private net reservations in the first seven weeks of 2012 rise 11% to £69 million against last year, whilst Bovis’ private reservations leapt 41% in the first weeks of 2012. <br> <br> Bellway reported a 20% rise in visitor levels so far this year. Over the six months to January 31, its private completions rose 15%. <br> <br> Barratt’s private forward sales as of February 19 were up 24.3%. Its half year results to December 2011 showed a £21.6 million profit after last year’s £4.6 million loss. <br> <br> Also reporting its half year results, Galliford Try said its completions rose 59% in 2011 …