Markets: FTSE 100 finds its feet

17:05 - London markets finished the day on a high note as optimism from the US filtered across the Pond.

The FTSE 100 closed up 18 points at 5126 with engineer and project manager AMEC (AMEC) rising to the top of the pile.

16:53 - Wall Street ploughed ahead as the day wore on, with the Dow Jones surging ahead 165 points to 9967, following positive US economic data.

U.S. business productivity in the third quarter grew at the fastest pace in six years while claims for unemployment benefit fell to a 10-month low. 
 
The Nasdaq also climbed 41 points to 2096 and the S&P gained 15 points, taking it to 1061.

16:35 - The European Central Bank (ECB) followed its counterparts today and left its main interest rate frozen at a record low of 1% - in line with analysts' predictions.

The Federal Reserve and The Bank of England also opted to keep interest rates on hold, despite burgeoning signs of a recovery.

President Jean-Claude Trichet said he saw an improvement in economic activity in the second half of 2009 and ongoing recovery in 2010, albeit at a gradual pace.

David Page of Investec says: 'We continue to believe that next month's meeting will be critical. The Council will have the benefit of fresh ECB staff forecasts and third quarter GDP estimates for next month's meeting, which should further confirm a less pessimistic outlook. This month the ECB hinted further at its exit strategy, next month the ECB looks set to go further and start to spell out the timetable of that strategy."

16:25 - British manufacturer Invensys (ISYS) put in a 'solid' performance in the six months to September despite a fall in half-yearly sales and profit.

The company's orders were down 7% to £1,079 million, while its operating profit tumbled by 15% to £102 million.

Invensys, nevertheless, said it had progressed well given the tough economic climate and reinstated its interim dividend of 1p as a result. The company said it remains confident that the restructuring, productivity measures and overhead reductions it has embarked on of late will help underpin its performance in the second half of the year.

Its share price dropped almost 3% to 290.70p.

16:00 - Investors' ears pricked up at news of Gold Oil's (GOO) promising discoveries in Colombia, sending the share price rocketing by almost 15%.

The AIM-listed oil and gas exploration company said resources had been detected at its La Vega South & East prospects within the Azar block during preliminary tests. 

Mark Pritchard, chairman of Gold Oil, hailed the results as 'excellent news.'

The positive data spurred the company, along with its operating partners, to purchase additional land over the La Florida structure which lies in the northern part of the block and possesses promising potential. 

Its share price stood at 4.50p following the news.

15:41 - Hotel chain Millennium & Copthorne (MLC) remained optimistic that the 'worst was behind' it, despite reporting a 27% slump in third quarter profits.

Pre-tax profit for the three-month period ended 30 September decreased to £22 million from £30 million a year ago.
 
However, the hotelier said cost cutting measures had helped it to claw back savings of almost £67 million and generate close to £54 million in operating cash flow since the start of the year.

The FTSE 250 group said the 'industry is moving in the right direction' and although it was difficult to forecast how 2010 would map out, the chain was 'encouraged' by its results.

Its share price was little changed at just over 351p.

15:22 - London markets dragged themselves back into positive territory after spending much of the day in the doldrums.

The FTSE 100 stood up six points at 5114 as Wall Street bounded forward. Rentokil (RTO) was at the top of the risers' board after BoFA Merrill Lynch said it believes that the group's upcoming third-quarter results should prompt full-year upgrades and reinforce turnaround potential for the group.

15:01 - Wall Street was on the front foot following the release of figures showing a bigger-than-expected drop in the number of workers signing on to unemployment benefit.

Initial claims for jobless benefits fell to 512,000 last week - the lowest level since January, according to the Labor Department.

The Dow Jones climbed 115 points to 9917 with the Nasdaq up 1.5% to 2088 and the S&P 500 lifting around 1%.

14:42 - Oil prices were holding strong at just over $80 a barrel as a weak US dollar continued to spur interest in the commodities market.
 
Positive data showing a 3.3 million barrel drop in crude inventories during the previous week also played its part in boosting investor confidence.
 
Crude oil was at $80.10 a barrel, while London Brent was pegged at $78.55 a barrel.

14:18 - Gold prices were on roll, hitting fresh highs of $1,095 an ounce on Thursday, after the Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates at close to 0%.
 
The weakening US dollar also whetted investors' appetite for the precious metal.
 
Prices first broke through the $1,090 an ounce barrier on Wednesday.

13:51 - Swiss bank UBS has been slapped with an £8 million fine for failing to stop four employees carrying out unauthorised transactions involving customer money.

At least 39 accounts were affected by the unauthorised trading of foreign exchange and precious metals between January 2006 and December 2007 at UBS' London-based wealth management business.

An internal UBS investigation estimated that as many as 50 unauthorised transactions a day were taking place at the operation's peak.

For the full story, read:  UBS hit with £8m unauthorised trading fine

13:20 - London markets were stuck in the red after the Bank of England announced plans to pump a further £25 billion into its quantitative easing programme.

The FTSE 100 sank 29 points to 5079 with Cable & Wireless (CW-) and Invensys (ISYS) the heaviest fallers.

12:55 - Budget airline easyJet (EZJ) has reported a 6.6% rise in the number of passengers to 4.22 million in October.

This put the load factor - the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available for passengers - as 86.8% compared to 83.9% for the same period in 2008.

The FTSE 250 group announces its full-year results on 17 November. 

Its shares were down more than 1% at 369p.

12:30 - Broadcaster ITV (ITV) cheered investors with forecasts for a surprise rise in advertising revenue next month.

The FTSE 250 group is predicting a 4% rise in net advertising revenue (NAR) in December  - the first monthly gain since the first half of 2008.

It put the improvement down to extending its lead over BBC1 in prime time viewing.

It shares climbed 6% to 47.17p. 

12:00 - The Bank of England today pumped another £25 billion into its radical quantitative easing programme in a bid to support the fledgling economic recovery.

The latest move takes the total amount of new money created so far to £200 billion.

Economists had been widely anticipating a further injection after the latest GDP figures revealed that the UK remained mired in recession in the third quarter when most other industrialised countries, including the US, have now returned to growth.  

For the full story, read: BoE boosts quantitative easing by £25bn

11:29 - London markets were recovering some of their earlier lost ground despite heavy falls from companies updating the market on recent trading.

The FTSE 100 was down 20 points to 5088 with Cable & Wireless (CW-) and Invensys (ISYS) the heaviest fallers.

Nicola Poskitt of City Index says: 'Banking stocks are weak in this morning's trading with Lloyds down 2.8% and Royal Bank of Scotland down 2.5%. The FTSE 100 seems to be struggling as investors are waiting to see what the Bank of England rate announcement will be at midday and whether there will be a change to the quantitative easing program.'

11:05 - Manufacturing output rebounded by a stronger-than-expected 1.7% in September, raising hopes that the economy will see reasonable expansion in the fourth quarter.

However, downward revisions to previous months' data mean that production still fell by 0.8% in the third quarter overall.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight says:'Just as August's slump in output sharply overstated the weakness in the manufacturing sector, so does September's rebound exaggerate the strength. The manufacturing sector has clearly improved significantly overall after output plunged in late-2008/early-2009, but sustainable healthy growth is still far from assured.' 

Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics adds: 'With production still down by more than 10% on a year ago, the road to recovery in industry will be a long and bumpy one.'

10:43 - Food and household goods group Unilever (ULVR) saw profits plummet in the third quarter but underlying sales rise in challenging conditions.

Net profit came in at EUR1.05 billion while sales lifted by a better-than-expected 3.4% following a 3.6% increase in volumes amid greater spending on marketing and selective price cuts in the downturn.

Chief executive Paul Polman says: 'Market conditions remain challenging and in this environment we will continue to increase investment behind our brands and build long-term capabilities in research and development. We are on track towards our objective of restoring volume growth while protecting margins and cash flow for the year as a whole.'

Its shares were down almost 3% to 1775p.

10:24 - Struggling transport group National Express (NEX) will lose control of its East Coast Main Line from one minute before midnight on 13 November.

Under the original franchise it signed up to pay £1.3 billion but this turned problematic when the recession hit passenger revenues and talks with the Department for Transport about easing the terms of the deal earlier this year. In July the FTSE 250 group announced the London to Edinburgh service would be handed back over to the Government.

National Express has two other rail franchises in the UK - National Express East Anglia and c2c - which are not affected by the handover.

Its shares were down more than 2% to 317.5p.

10:06 - New car registrations rose for a fourth consecutive month in October at a sharply increased rate of 32% to 168,942, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers.

This followed rises of 11.4% year-on-year in September, 6.0% in August and 2.4% in July with car sales benefitting from the government's vehicle scrappage scheme that started in mid-May.

Howard Archer of IHS Global Insight says: 'While the further pick up in car sales in October was clearly driven primarily by the scrappage scheme and a desire to beat January's VAT hike, it may also be a sign that a significant number of consumers have greater scope and willingness to step up their discretionary spending.'

09:42 - Mining giant Vedanta Resources (VED) is forecasting better times ahead after efforts to ramp up production failed to offset the effect of weak metal prices earlier in the year.

The India focused miner saw pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September tumble 47% to $604.6 million as revenue slipped 25% to $2.98 billion.

Chairman Anil Agarwal said: 'We have seen some recovery in metals prices and the fundamentals remain highly attractive. We expect that the economic and industrial growth in India will help underpin the demand for our products.'

Its shares were down more than 3% to 2213p.

09:14 - Shares in telecoms group Cable & Wireless (CW-) were struggling today after the group revised down its full-year earnings guidance.
 
Its EBITDA guidance for it International division the year to 31 March has been reset to between $880 million and $900 million from $935 million amid a poor economic environment in the Caribbean which saw fewer tourists visiting the area.

The UK's second largest telecoms group is also pressing ahead with its demerger plans which will see it split into two companies Worldwide and CWI.

Its shares were down more than 7% to 137.4p

08:45 - London markets were languishing in the red on Thursday ahead of the latest decision from the Bank of England on interest rates.

The FTSE 100 was down 42 points to 5066 with Cable & Wireless (CW-) the biggest faller after revising down its earnings guidance.

Asian stocks were losing ground as investors started to doubt whether the turnaround in the fortunes of many economies is strong enough to sustain the recent eight month rally. 

The Nikkei fell to a one-month closing low at 9717 with exporters slipping on a stronger yen. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 136 points to 21479 as property companies fell out of favour.

The rally on Wall Street ran out of steam after the Federal Reserve said that interest rates would be likely to be held at near zero for an 'extended period' even though it is seeing signs of a pick-up in the US economy.

The Dow Jones closed up 30 points at 9802 while the Nasdaq and the S&P hovered around their opening marks. 

Hedge fund Man Group (EMG) was reassuring investors that the financial sector recovery is underway with higher than expected profits at $302 million and a slowdown in the number of clients withdrawing funds.   

It had $44 billion in funds under management at 30 September up from a low of $43.3 billion at the end of June.
The FTSE 100 group is maintaining the interim dividend at 19.2 cents per share.

Shares in the group were up fractionally to 326p. 

Insurance giant Old Mutual (OML) saw third quarter sales dip by a better-than-expected 4% to £326 million - above analyst expectations for £319 million. 

These lost more than half in the US to stand at £14 million with European sales down 3% in Europe to £208 million. However, the UK and emerging markets put in a stronger performance, up 6% in £72 million and £104 million respectively. 

Pre-tax profit on an IFRS basis tumbled 81% to £160 million for the six months ended 30 June 2009, down from £853 million in 2008.

The Anglo-South African company says the pick-up in the investment markets has been carried through to the fourth quarter.
Its shares were down more than 2% to 108.7p. 

08:00 - The FTSE 100 opens at 5107.14.