London close: Second day of heady gains
The Footsie failed to achieve its second successive triple-digit daily gain, but it came close as soothing noises from the US Federal Reserve encouraged investors to return in force to the equity markets.
Financial stocks were at the forefront of the rise, especially insurances, banks and real estate investment trusts.
Royal & Sun Alliance set the tone for the day by announcing better than expected results and an upbeat trading statement early this morning. The market also liked the progress the company is making on reducing costs, with another 700 job cuts announced today.
Life assurance group Friends Provident notched up an above average gain, helped by bullish comments which accompanied the insurer's 8% fall in underlying profits.
In the banking sector, rumours that National Australian Bank may be sizing up Alliance & Leicester as an acquisition target sent the former building society's shares soaring. Fellow mortgage lenders Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock rose in sympathy.
Demand for ITV's shares was boosted by encouraging noises about the growth in advertising at the broadcaster's flagship ITV1 channel.
Oils looked set for a humdrum day, but recovered late in the day on news of a surprise drop in US crude supplies. BP finished the day marginally firmer, despite trading ex-dividend.
Severn Trent subsided after announcing that the medium term costs of dealing with the recent flood damage in the UK is likely to be around £25m to £35m, although between £10m and £20m of this is likely to be recoverable through insurance claims.
Among second liners, Aquarius Platinum moved up after results prompted a broker recommendation to buy the shares.
Fund manager F&C surged on hopes of that there could yet be some intervention in the Friends /Resolution merger plans. F&C is majority owned by Friends.
Engineer FKI was down following the ending of bid talks. Among the minnows, aircraft charter group Air Partner has predicted a 50% rise in profits this year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Liberty International (LII) 1,130.00p +6.50%
ICAP (IAP) 500.00p +6.04%
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 1,107.00p +6.03%
SEGRO (SGRO) 565.00p +5.90%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,328.00p +5.35%
Yell Group (YELL) 488.75p +5.16%
Schroders (SDR) 1,286.00p +4.98%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,778.00p +4.90%
Sage Group (SGE) 243.75p +4.73%
Northern Rock (NRK) 815.00p +4.62%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,008.00p -2.80%
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) 695.00p -2.59%
British Energy Group (BGY) 474.50p -2.22%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,336.00p -1.91%
Drax Group (DRX) 649.00p -1.89%
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National Grid (NG.) 716.50p -1.85%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,207.00p -1.55%
Pearson (PSON) 802.50p -1.11%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 565.00p -0.88%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 632.50p -0.71%
FTSE 250 - Risers
F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 217.50p +14.47%
Minerva (MNR) 308.00p +10.69%
Admiral Group (ADM) 940.00p +10.26%
Unite Group (UTG) 419.00p +9.40%
Derwent London (DLN) 1,873.00p +8.96%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 236.00p +8.76%
Carpetright (CPR) 1,221.00p +8.73%
Shaftesbury (SHB) 598.50p +8.52%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 1,433.00p +8.15%
Workspace Group (WKP) 390.00p +7.88%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Keller Group (KLR) 904.00p -7.23%
FKI (FKI) 100.75p -5.62%
GKN (GKN) 360.50p -5.01%
DS Smith (SMDS) 229.00p -4.48%
Halfords Group (HFD) 376.00p -3.96%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 347.25p -3.61%
Wincanton (WIN) 379.00p -3.56%
Beazley Group (BEZ) 175.00p -3.31%
Hunting (HTG) 721.00p -3.22%
Catlin Group (CGL) 459.75p -2.96%
