London close: Footsie ends in the red
London's benchmark index finished the week in the red as the finance sector weighed, coupled with the poor start on Wall Street.
Bank Barclays was weak after it admitted it had some exposure to the two Bear Stearn funds though it said losses were not material. Fund manager Schroders was also down on its large US exposure.
Royal Bank of Scotland also dipped as it said it, and partners Santander and Fortis, expected to issue offer documents in relation to their bid for ABN AMRO by mid-July. The trio added they are making good progress on regulatory change of control and anti-trust filings.
Meanwhile, life insurers such as Friends Provident and Resolution also ended with strong losses by the close of play
Tesco was a big riser as it retraced some of the losses posted in the last few days following its first quarter results. The retail sector did well generally today with Home Retail Group and Morrison amongst the risers.
Pearson rallied ahead as UBS repeated 'buy' advice on the back of news that exploratory talks with General Electrics regarding the possibility of a joint bid for Dow Jones have ended.
Housebuilders, such as Persimmon and merger partners Taylor Woodrow and Wimpey, were lower after the announcement this morning that the Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into the housebuilding industry in the UK. The inquiry will focus on two main areas - customer satisfaction, and planning issues.
Stagecoach has been awarded the contract to run the East Midlands rail franchise. The new franchise will begin on 11th November 2007 and end on April 1st 2015. National Express, which used to run the existing service, said it was "very disappointed" by the decision.
Health and fitness firm ADDleisure has a major new shareholder in the shape of private healthcare giant BUPA, which is pumping £6.7m into the Aim-listed group in return for a 29.9% stake.
ReNeuron bounced off six month lows today after the stem cell group said its scientists have generated stable human pancreatic cell lines for treatment of Type 1 diabetes.
Gold Oil rallied on news that it received approval from the Cuban National Office of Mineral Resources to explore oil and gas both onshore and offshore Cuba.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Home Retail Group (HOME) 451.00p +2.73%
Tesco (TSCO) 430.75p +2.07%
Invesco (IVZ) 649.00p +1.96%
Morrison (WM) (MRW) 292.00p +1.74%
Centrica (CNA) 385.50p +1.58%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,564.00p +1.56%
Pearson (PSON) 836.00p +1.39%
BAE Systems (BA.) 438.75p +1.33%
British Airways (BAY) 428.75p +1.12%
BP (BP.) 583.50p +0.69%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 674.00p -2.60%
Wolseley (WOS) 1,244.00p -2.20%
Friends Provident (FP.) 184.10p -2.02%
Resolution (RSL) 636.00p -1.85%
National Grid (NG.) 719.50p -1.77%
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Northern Rock (NRK) 951.00p -1.76%
Sage Group (SGE) 236.75p -1.76%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,646.00p -1.73%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 636.00p -1.70%
Schroders Nv (SDRC) 1,171.00p -1.68%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Dimension Data (DDT) 54.75p +4.78%
Petrofac Ld (PFC) 457.50p +4.04%
De La Rue (DLAR) 778.00p +3.32%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 143.75p +3.05%
ITE Group (ITE) 172.00p +2.99%
Quintain Estate (QED) 799.50p +2.90%
Weir Group (WEIR) 720.50p +2.71%
Invensys (ISYS) 393.00p +2.68%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 145.25p +2.65%
Aggreko (AGK) 570.00p +2.61%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Assura Group (AGR) 195.25p -5.22%
BlueBay (BBAY) 505.00p -4.72%
Mapeley (MAY) 2,910.00p -3.64%
RIT Capital (RCP) 1,020.00p -3.41%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 118.00p -3.28%
Investec (INVP) 652.00p -3.19%
Autonomy (AU.) 688.50p -3.10%
Keller Group (KLR) 1,025.00p -2.75%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,131.00p -2.67%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 278.00p -2.46%
