FTSE 100 nudges higher as banks start to look oversold
THE FTSE 100 edged up by 0.7 per cent yesterday, snapping a three-day losing run, with gains in banks and miners offsetting weakness in oil producers hurt by weaker crude prices. The index closed 31.21 points higher at 4,362.58 in a choppy session.
“It still looks too early to predict the end of this two month recovery,” said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index. “The 4,300 mark has underpinned any weakness and although the flow of ‘green shoots’ type of news has stopped in recent days, a run back up to the 4,500 mark for the index looks entirely possible.”
Banks were the top sectoral gainer after falling sharply in the previous session. Barclays surged 4.2 per cent after Morgan Stanley upgraded the lender to “overweight”.
HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were up between 1.7 per cent and 8.1 per cent.
Miners were firmer as silver miner Fresnillo and gold miner Randgold Resources added 11.7 and 3.6 per cent respectively, supported by strength in precious metal prices.
Eurasian Natural Resources, Vedanta Resources, Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys and Xstrata were up between 2.5 per cent and 5.3 per cent.
Oil producers, on the other hand, were the main drag on the index. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Cairn Energy and BG Group slipped 0.4 per cent to 2 per cent.
“We won’t see the lows of March again but there is short-term worry over the health of the global economy,” said Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of private client research at Charles Stanley. “There’s a very active debate going on between pessimistic bond traders who feel there maybe a need for more stimulus and the more positive equity traders who feel the worst is behind us.”
On a busy day for corporate results, BT Group sank 6.4 per cent after it cut its dividend and said a further 15,000 jobs would go.
Invensys soared more than 13 per cent after beating expectations on operating profit and resuming the payment of a final dividend.
Balfour Beatty was also higher, up 3.6 per cent after it forecast further progress in 2009 overall after its performance in the building sector exceeded that of last year.
Tour operator Thomas Cook shed 7.3 per cent, despite saying it was confident of meeting full year expectations as summer holiday bookings for 2009 remained robust even as economic conditions were tough.