London close: Footsie finishes with a flurry
London's top stocks finished with stellar gains as a surge on Wall Street helped the benchmark index build on earlier gains.
US stocks jumped after billionaire investor Warren Buffett offered to take over liabilities from US bond insurers. Buffett said that his company Berkshire has offered to insure around $800bn in tax exempt bonds.
The news helped financials in London finish with strong gains with ICAP being the biggest riser. Barclays, Old Mutual, HBOS, Legal & General and Standard Chartered reversed earlier losses to close well into the blue. Admiral though was still the major blue chip faller.
Oil majors and travel stocks had already given the market a leg-up before the financials changed course. Shell rose following the threat by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to cease supplies of oil to the US in retaliation to oil giant Exxon's lawsuit freezing Venezuela's assets.
BP was also up while travel firms Thomas Cook and TUI Travel were one of the biggest risers of the day.
Lonmin was helped by platinum rising for the fifth day in a row due to demand from carmakers combined with supply concerns in South Africa.
Xstrata was down earlier on a report in the FT that it has rejected an informal cash and share takeover approach from Brazilian mining group Vale pitched at just under £40 a share or $76bn (£38.9bn) for its entire equity. Shares edged higher by close.
Scottish & Newcastle also edged ahead after announcing plans to close its Berkshire Brewery operations by early 2010 to save about £13m per year from its cost base.
Among smaller companies, fund manager and stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown lifted first-half profits by 40% to £28.7m from £20.5m.
Online gamer 888 Holdings has seen fourth quarter net gaming revenue from its casino business rise by 60% to $35m and its poker arm by 17% to $21m.
Contractor Balfour Beatty has agreed to buy the military PPP accommodation business of US real-estate trust GMH Communities Trust for $350m.
Software solutions provider Alphameric has had its contract to provide enterprise resource planning solutions to Costa Coffee extended by two years.
Residential property owner Grainger's margins have held up in the four months to end January, despite sales volumes being lower because of a reduced number of vacancies and a slowing of the sales process.
Dana Petroleum said its Norway unit has been awarded three new exploration licences on the Norwegian continental shelf by the country's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Credit Suisse has raised its price target on the group to 1,760p from 1,570p.
Software company Micro Focus expects second half revenues to come in slightly better than forecast thanks to a strong third quarter.
Household good supplier Norcros has cautioned consumer uncertainty in the UK and power problems in South Africa will mean it just missing trading profit forecasts this year.
Papua New Guinea focussed oil and gas explorer, Rift Oil, said test drilling at Puk Puk in its Douglas gas discovery area in PPL 235 is on course to start in April.
Customer monitoring software firm GB Group said it went into profit for the quarter to December 2007 and said it has continued to trade profitability in the final quarter.
Miner Goldplat surged ahead after it saw profits surge 128% for the first half and said it was looking at this level of profitability as a platform for further growth.
Software company.
FTSE 100 - Risers
ICAP (IAP) 703.00p +7.16%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,022.00p +6.76%
TUI Travel (TT.) 269.50p +6.42%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,300.00p +6.25%
Barclays (BARC) 455.75p +6.17%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,523.00p +6.05%
Old Mutual (OML) 123.40p +5.92%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 127.10p +5.83%
HBOS (HBOS) 673.00p +5.82%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 290.00p +5.65%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
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Admiral Group (ADM) 924.00p -1.12%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 1,853.00p -0.05%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 787.50p +0.06%
FirstGroup (FGP) 653.50p +0.08%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,819.00p +0.37%
Yell Group (YELL) 263.75p +0.38%
BT Group (BT.A) 230.50p +0.55%
Compass Group (CPG) 332.75p +0.68%
British Energy Group (BGY) 489.00p +0.72%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,404.00p +0.75%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Telecity Group (TCY) 219.00p +13.91%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 334.75p +9.22%
Northern Rock (NRK) 105.00p +8.25%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,660.00p +8.25%
Bellway (BWY) 776.00p +8.00%
St James's Place (STJ) 241.75p +7.92%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 143.00p +7.92%
Wellstream Holdings (WSM) 1,301.00p +7.70%
Keller Group (KLR) 591.50p +7.55%
Investec (INVP) 411.25p +7.52%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Pennon Group (PNN) 651.50p -1.96%
WH Smith (SMWH) 358.75p -1.85%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 27.00p -1.82%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 188.75p -1.69%
COLT Telecom Group S.A. (COLT) 143.75p -1.54%
Soco International (SIA) 1,974.00p -1.25%
Southern Cross Healthcare Group (SCHE) 363.00p -1.16%
DSG International (DSGI) 69.00p -1.08%
Benfield Group (BFD) 260.50p -0.86%
Signet Group (SIG) 63.00p -0.79%
