London close: Footsie cheers one-month closing high
London carried healthy gains through to the end of play, with housebuilders, retailers and mining heavyweights helping the leading index record its best closing level since November 1.
Yesterday's quarter point cut in interest rates and decent results from mid-cap peer Berkeley Group sent Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Barratt Developments skyward.
Berkeley reported interim results showing an 11% hike in pre-tax profit to £90.6m on revenue 15.8% higher at £441.4m. Rivals Bovis, Alfred McAlpine and Bellway also advanced briskly, the latter despite gloomy results Thursday.
Real estate, which like the housebuilding sector has been on the rack recently, also rallied, with British Land, Hammerson and Land Securities ahead.
Hopes of another drop in rates after the Bank of England lowered borrowing costs to 5.5% also encouraged retailers. Dixons owner DSG International, Argos firm Home Retail Group, M&S and Next all ended in the blue.
Plumbing supplies merchant Wolseley also hit the recovery trail, buoyed by President Bush's announcement of a plan to forestall a wave of foreclosures by allowing property owners struggling with mortgage repayments to freeze interest rates on their home loans for up to five years.
Xstrata rose on idle bid chat. Anglo American and Antofagasta joined the advance, but BSkyB shares reacted badly to news that chief executive James Murdoch will leave his post to take up an executive role at News Corporation.
He will stay on at BSkyB as non-executive chairman, succeeding his father, Rupert, who has decided to step down as chairman. Jeremy Darroch, previously Sky's chief financial officer, will become the new chief executive.
Elsewhere, Olivant gave details of its offer to rescue Northern Rock. Under its plan, the stricken mortgage lender will keep its brand name, will get a significant injection of new equity plus loans of between £10bn -£15bn re-financed. The rest of the money borrowed from the government will be repaid by 2009. Another possible bidder, JC Flowers, has dropped out of the race, but Rock shares picked up after a slow start.
A number of dairy and supermarket groups settled early over allegations of price fixing in 2002 and 2003. J Sainsbury agreed to pay a settlement of £26m to the Office of Fair Trading, while Dairy Crest will fork out £9.4m provided that it continues to cooperate fully with the OFT's investigation. Robert Wiseman has paid £6.1m. Tesco and Wm Morrison remain under investigation.
Budget airline easyJet reported a 13.2% rise in the number of passengers in November to 2.89m from 2.56m last year.
Emap shareholders will get a bumper cash return of 460p per share after the sale of its consumer businesses for £1.14bn, but the media group failed to find a buyer at the right price for its business to business arm.
Components distributor Premier Farnell impressed among the second liners on a Citigroup upgrade to 'hold' from 'sell' after yesterday's well-received third quarter results.
AIM stock Bulgarian Land climbed higher after announcing a hike in its net asset value per share to 121p at the end of September, compared with 109p at the end of 2006.
Distributor of home entertainment products Air Music & Media danced higher today as it reported "encouraging" results for the first half, with sales up 40% since the end of the period.
News of a voluntary product recall at William Ransom had shares in the natural healthcare products supplier plunging 50%.
Begbies Traynor lost well over a third of its value Friday after the insolvency group warned that operating profit for the full year to 30 April 2008 could fall by 20%.
Specialty drug developer Proximagen Neuroscience slid after it confirmed that it is no longer engaged in any discussions likely to lead to a bid for the company.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Xstrata (XTA) 3,656.00p +7.91%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 214.50p +7.63%
Northern Rock (NRK) 110.60p +7.38%
Wolseley (WOS) 733.50p +6.92%
Persimmon (PSN) 794.00p +5.80%
Kingfisher (KGF) 159.20p +5.36%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 793.50p +5.24%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,400.00p +5.07%
British Land (BLND) 975.00p +4.67%
DSG International (DSGI) 116.50p +4.48%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
ICAP (IAP) 664.50p -2.06%
(Article continues below)Advertisement
SABMiller (SAB) 1,362.00p -1.73%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,578.00p -1.72%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 859.50p -1.55%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,843.00p -1.44%
Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) 2,924.00p -1.38%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,911.00p -1.34%
BG Group (BG.) 1,030.00p -0.96%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 633.00p -0.71%
Diageo (DGE) 1,064.00p -0.65%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,370.00p +9.51%
Aquarius Platinum (AQP) 616.00p +9.32%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 587.00p +8.70%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 648.00p +7.37%
Tomkins (TOMK) 202.25p +6.59%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 497.00p +6.42%
Signet Group (SIG) 68.75p +6.18%
Premier Farnell (PFL) 152.75p +5.53%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 172.00p +5.20%
Grainger (GRI) 373.50p +5.14%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
EMAP (EMA) 746.50p -9.52%
Abbot Group (ABG) 335.00p -3.25%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 259.00p -3.00%
Tradus (TRAD) 1,643.00p -2.95%
BlueBay Asset Management (BBAY) 378.00p -2.89%
John Wood Group (WG.) 381.50p -2.80%
Keller Group (KLR) 728.00p -2.28%
Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) 277.50p -2.12%
eaga (EAGA) 175.00p -1.96%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 354.25p -1.94%
