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Markets: FTSE 100 finishes on a high
Interactive Investor News Team
17.04.09
16:48 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) ended a sluggish week at 4093, up 40 points on the start of the session and 109 points on the start of the week.
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were the top climbers of the day, notching up gains of 15% and 14% respectively as confidence begins to return to the sector.
16:37 - Wall Street was struggling for direction despite better-than-expected results from US bank Citigroup and industrial conglomerate General Electric.
The Dow Jones nudged into positive territory, up 14 points to 8131 as the London markets shut with the S&P also climbing slightly amid hopes that the US economy may finally be starting to stabilise.
15:51 - US giant General Electric has posted a 35% fall in quarterly profit to $2.8 billion - less than analysts had been expecting.
The group, which is seen as an indicator of the state of the US economy, is cutting costs by more than $5 billion in 2009. During the first quarter, GE cut is dividend for the first time since 1938 and lost its top credit rating.
14:48 - US markets were a mixed bag in the early stages of trading on Friday, as investors digested the latest earnings reports from Citigroup and General Electric.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up seven points to 8133, while the Nasdaq (12 points) and S&P 500 (one point) slipped into the red.
14:15 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) was looking perky after US bank Citigroup reported its first quarterly net profit in almost two years.
London's leading share index was up 39 points to 4092 with Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) enjoying double-digit gains.
12:46 - Exports in the eurozone plunged by a quarter year-on-year in February, with imports slumping by over a fifth as the impact of the global economic downturn on trading in the region hit home.
Exports from the 16-country zone to non-members totalled EUR99.2 billion - a drop of 24%, while imports crashed 21% to EUR101 billion.
The figures from Eurostat show an external trade deficit of EUR2 billion - up from EUR1.7 billion last year.
12:39 - US banking giant Citigroup announced a first-quarter profit of $1.6 billion compared to a loss of $5.1 billion for the same period the previous year.
However, this plummeted to a $966 million loss once $2.7 billion of dividend payments to preferred shareholders were taken into account.
Revenue almost doubled to $24.79 billion, but the bank was hit by a large amount of credit losses and accounting of preferred stock. "We had our best overall quarter since the second quarter of 2007," chief executive Vikram Pandit said.
The bank has received three Government bail-outs since October, with shares closing yesterday's trading at a 40% deficit year-on-year.
12:25 - Executives at BP (BP-) hoping for long-term increases in remuneration were dealt a blow when over a third of shareholders voted against the company's plans at the firm's AGM.
In the meeting, almost 5% also voted against the reappointment of chairman Peter Sutherland following his role on the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) remuneration committee that allowed Sir Fred Goodwin to claim a £703,000 annual pension.
Another former RBS executive, Sir Tom McKillop, also formally stepped down from his role on the BP board.
12:06 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) leapt into life in early afternoon trading, helped by good performances from BT (BT-A) and the banks.
London' leading index was up 47 points to 4100, as BT conceded its place atop the winners' board to Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) which gained over 10%.
Miners, however, were struggling, with Randgold Resources (RRS) and Rio Tinto (RIO) both falling over 2%.
11:55 - An unnamed whistleblower has accused the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of failing to heed warnings that building societies were entering into dangerous lending practices during the market boom.
The whistleblower approached Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable with the claim that three years ago the FSA refused to acknowledge that risky self-certified loans had been sold to building societies as conventional loans.
Read FSA accused of ignoring warnings
10:41 - London's top stock market was showing about as much life as the waxworks at Madame Tussaud's today, trading mainly flat in the morning session.
Telecomms firms were leading the charge, with financial stocks also performing well. The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up a solitary point to 4053, with BT Group (BT-A) jumping almost 7% having announced a "high value" business bundle to customers yesterday.
Leading the fallers was Compass Group (CPG), while miners Fresnillo (FRES) and Randgold Resources (RRS) also struggling as both lost over 3%.
10:32 - Shares in FTSE Small Cap-listed engineering group Costain (COST) were on flying form this morning following the announcement that its joint venture with Skanska has been chosen as a contractor for London's Crossrail project.
The deal has a potential value of over £250 million, with Costain confirming today that a substantial amount of the work will be carried out close to or over live Network Rail and London Underground assets.
Crossrail is set to open in 2017 and will increase the city's rail-based public transport by 10%.
Costain's share price climbed 10% to 27.5.
09:44 - The world's second largest drugmaker, AstraZeneca (AZN), has won a temporary block on Apotex's selling of the asthma drug Pulmicort Respules.
Toronto-based Apotex has been issued with a restraining order which will run until at least 27 April, when the court will decide whether or not Apotex's copy should be kept off the shelf until the case for the underlying patent is heard.
AstraZeneca's shares were 1.3% down at 2,363.5p.
09:36 - Leading mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has announced it is to shed a further 2,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs by EUR400 million.
09:09 - Filters group Filtrona (FLTR) has signed a new agreement to refinance its banking facilities, a move which it says will meet the funding requirements for the next stage of its development.
09:02 - The Bank of England's David Blanchflower has warned that the UK's job crisis is in need of a Budget of its own, as he urged chancellor Alistair Darling to use next week's speech asa chance to stem the tide.
Blanchflower, who steps down from his position on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee at the end of May, has said that unemployment could rise to three million by the end of the year and the chancellor needed to introduce incentives for employers to hire younger people.
He also forecast unemployment would be one of the biggest issues in the next general election - which PM Gordon Brown must call before mid-2010.
08:51 - Department store chain John Lewis saw weekly sales to 11 April slip 1.5% to £48.4 million compared to the same period last year.
08:41 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) was struggling for a foothold in early trading, dipping into the red on Friday morning.
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were the top climbers of the day, notching up gains of 15% and 14% respectively as confidence begins to return to the sector.
16:37 - Wall Street was struggling for direction despite better-than-expected results from US bank Citigroup and industrial conglomerate General Electric.
The Dow Jones nudged into positive territory, up 14 points to 8131 as the London markets shut with the S&P also climbing slightly amid hopes that the US economy may finally be starting to stabilise.
15:51 - US giant General Electric has posted a 35% fall in quarterly profit to $2.8 billion - less than analysts had been expecting.
The group, which is seen as an indicator of the state of the US economy, is cutting costs by more than $5 billion in 2009. During the first quarter, GE cut is dividend for the first time since 1938 and lost its top credit rating.
14:48 - US markets were a mixed bag in the early stages of trading on Friday, as investors digested the latest earnings reports from Citigroup and General Electric.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up seven points to 8133, while the Nasdaq (12 points) and S&P 500 (one point) slipped into the red.
14:15 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) was looking perky after US bank Citigroup reported its first quarterly net profit in almost two years.
London's leading share index was up 39 points to 4092 with Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) enjoying double-digit gains.
12:46 - Exports in the eurozone plunged by a quarter year-on-year in February, with imports slumping by over a fifth as the impact of the global economic downturn on trading in the region hit home.
Exports from the 16-country zone to non-members totalled EUR99.2 billion - a drop of 24%, while imports crashed 21% to EUR101 billion.
The figures from Eurostat show an external trade deficit of EUR2 billion - up from EUR1.7 billion last year.
12:39 - US banking giant Citigroup announced a first-quarter profit of $1.6 billion compared to a loss of $5.1 billion for the same period the previous year.
However, this plummeted to a $966 million loss once $2.7 billion of dividend payments to preferred shareholders were taken into account.
Revenue almost doubled to $24.79 billion, but the bank was hit by a large amount of credit losses and accounting of preferred stock. "We had our best overall quarter since the second quarter of 2007," chief executive Vikram Pandit said.
The bank has received three Government bail-outs since October, with shares closing yesterday's trading at a 40% deficit year-on-year.
12:25 - Executives at BP (BP-) hoping for long-term increases in remuneration were dealt a blow when over a third of shareholders voted against the company's plans at the firm's AGM.
In the meeting, almost 5% also voted against the reappointment of chairman Peter Sutherland following his role on the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) remuneration committee that allowed Sir Fred Goodwin to claim a £703,000 annual pension.
Another former RBS executive, Sir Tom McKillop, also formally stepped down from his role on the BP board.
12:06 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) leapt into life in early afternoon trading, helped by good performances from BT (BT-A) and the banks.
London' leading index was up 47 points to 4100, as BT conceded its place atop the winners' board to Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) which gained over 10%.
Miners, however, were struggling, with Randgold Resources (RRS) and Rio Tinto (RIO) both falling over 2%.
11:55 - An unnamed whistleblower has accused the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of failing to heed warnings that building societies were entering into dangerous lending practices during the market boom.
The whistleblower approached Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable with the claim that three years ago the FSA refused to acknowledge that risky self-certified loans had been sold to building societies as conventional loans.
Read FSA accused of ignoring warnings
10:41 - London's top stock market was showing about as much life as the waxworks at Madame Tussaud's today, trading mainly flat in the morning session.
Telecomms firms were leading the charge, with financial stocks also performing well. The FTSE 100 (UKX) was up a solitary point to 4053, with BT Group (BT-A) jumping almost 7% having announced a "high value" business bundle to customers yesterday.
Leading the fallers was Compass Group (CPG), while miners Fresnillo (FRES) and Randgold Resources (RRS) also struggling as both lost over 3%.
10:32 - Shares in FTSE Small Cap-listed engineering group Costain (COST) were on flying form this morning following the announcement that its joint venture with Skanska has been chosen as a contractor for London's Crossrail project.
The deal has a potential value of over £250 million, with Costain confirming today that a substantial amount of the work will be carried out close to or over live Network Rail and London Underground assets.
Crossrail is set to open in 2017 and will increase the city's rail-based public transport by 10%.
Costain's share price climbed 10% to 27.5.
09:44 - The world's second largest drugmaker, AstraZeneca (AZN), has won a temporary block on Apotex's selling of the asthma drug Pulmicort Respules.
Toronto-based Apotex has been issued with a restraining order which will run until at least 27 April, when the court will decide whether or not Apotex's copy should be kept off the shelf until the case for the underlying patent is heard.
AstraZeneca's shares were 1.3% down at 2,363.5p.
09:36 - Leading mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has announced it is to shed a further 2,000 jobs in a bid to reduce costs by EUR400 million.
The latest job cuts come on the back of 2,000 previously unveiled in an earlier savings drive, which the firm has now completed, with Sony intending to finish the latest programme "by mid-2010".
Sony Ericsson formally announced the job losses as it revealed a pre-tax loss EUR358 million for the first quarter of 2009, a day after rival Nokia reported a 90% drop in profits.
09:09 - Filters group Filtrona (FLTR) has signed a new agreement to refinance its banking facilities, a move which it says will meet the funding requirements for the next stage of its development.
The new £195 million deal with a syndicate of banks will replace its existing facilities, would have expired in November and March 2010. The FTSE-250 listed group had net debts of £140 million on 4 April.
Its shares were up 1.2% to 122.25p.
Its shares were up 1.2% to 122.25p.
09:02 - The Bank of England's David Blanchflower has warned that the UK's job crisis is in need of a Budget of its own, as he urged chancellor Alistair Darling to use next week's speech asa chance to stem the tide.
Blanchflower, who steps down from his position on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee at the end of May, has said that unemployment could rise to three million by the end of the year and the chancellor needed to introduce incentives for employers to hire younger people.
He also forecast unemployment would be one of the biggest issues in the next general election - which PM Gordon Brown must call before mid-2010.
08:51 - Department store chain John Lewis saw weekly sales to 11 April slip 1.5% to £48.4 million compared to the same period last year.
The figures mark the employee-owned group's best performance so far this year although it attributed it to the traditional boost from Easter spending. Fashion sales lifted 6.6% although electrical and home technology and homewares lost further ground.
John Lewis weekly sales are seen as a good indicator of consumer spending.
08:41 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) was struggling for a foothold in early trading, dipping into the red on Friday morning.
London's leading index was eight points down 4048, despite strong starts from life insurers and fixed-line telecomms firms.
Topping the winners' board was banking giant Barclays (BARC) - up almost 6% - with rivals Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) not far behind.
Among the strugglers, property firm Hammerson (HMSO) and miner Randgold Resources (RRS) led the way, both falling over 2%.
Chris Hossain, senior sales manager at ODL Securities, said: "The markets are now at a crossroads, with both bulls and bears having a strong argument. Whilst corporate numbers look good, in particular JP Morgan and Google yesterday, and with Trichet saying that we should be in a healthier state in 2010, one simply can't ignore the poor sets of economic data that are being released. Eurozone economic output has plunged, Chinese growth has slowed at its fastest pace, and the IMF have reiterated that the slump will be long and severe - who do you believe?"
In Asia, high-tech shares were leading a charge forward, boosted by Google's better-than-expected quarterly profits, while steelmakers rose on the back of US President, Barack Obama's insistence that the US would look to develop a national high-speed rail network. Japan's Nikkei was up 152 points to 8907, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up 89 points to 15672.
US markets were awash with hope on Thursday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its highest point since February. Indices were buoyed by technology firms and consumer discretionary shares, but received a dose of reality from gloomy housing data and a warning from JPMorgan Chase's chief executive that banks should be prepared to face losses from commercial real estate.
At the close, the Dow was up 90 points to 8125, while the Nasdaq climbed 43 points to 1670 and the S&P 500 gained 13 poinst to 865.
Industrial materials group Morgan Crucible (MGCR) saw first-quarter revenue lift by 43% to £255 million as it reaped the benefit of recent acquisitions, a strong first-year performance from NP Aerospace - in which it boosted its stake in January - and favourable currency movements. It added that further job cuts could be on the cards while its plans to refinance its banking facilities are progressing well.
Shares in the FTSE-250 listed firm were down 2% to 112.25p.
Training software supplier NetDimensions (NETD) saw pre-tax losses for the year to 31 December narrow to $0.59 million from $0.95 million the previous year as revenue increased to $6.35 million. The AIM-listed group added that a $0.7 million currency charge hit profitability for the year. Its shares were flat at 13.75p.
FTSE Small Cap-listed materials group Low & Bonar (LWB) said sales and order enquiries picked up slightly in March and early April although these are still down on last year. Its shares were down 3.25% to 29.75p.
08:00 - The FTSE 100 (UKX) opens the final day of the week at 4052.98.
Overnight news
Internet search group Google enjoyed a 9% rise in net profit to $1.42 billion for the first quarter of the year - beating analyst expectations.
Internet search group Google enjoyed a 9% rise in net profit to $1.42 billion for the first quarter of the year - beating analyst expectations.
Revenue came in at $5.5 billion - 6% higher than the same period the previous year but down 3% on the last quarter with Google.com driving the results.
However, chief executive Eric Schmidt added that Google was feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, but that the shift online means it is well-positioned to weather the advertising slowdown.
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