London close: Banks boost Footsie
Leading shares kicked on again in the afternoon to extend Footsie's gains, with banks, miners and insurers leading the way.
Barclays and Lloyds TSB were wanted after The Sunday Times reported they will attempt to lift the climate of fear surrounding Britain's financial institutions by declaring an unexpected increase in dividend payments. HBOS, Standard Chartered, and Royal Bank of Scotland moved up in sympathy.
Meanwhile, Northern Rock shares have been suspended as the government looks to introduce a bill tomorrow enabling the bank to be brought into state ownership. Darling rejected both the rescue packages proposed by Virgin Group and Northern Rock's management team as he did not believe they delivered sufficient value for money.
"I will publish shortly the framework agreement which will outline how the relationship between the government and Northern Rock will work." Darling told Parliament this afternoon.
Rising copper, platinum and gold prices underpin miners with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vedanta the major beneficiaries. Rio said it is currently in negotiations with its customers to establish 2008 prices in the wake of the announced settlements between Vale and POSCO and Nippon Steel for Carajas fine ore.
Insurers were also wanted, with Prudential and Aviva spearheading the sector's advance.
Experian said it is undertaking a review of its online price comparison shopping service PriceGrabber after reports suggested the credit checking company is looking to sell the business.
Coincidentally, fellow price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com was sharply higher after UBS upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral".
BT was dented after Dutch broker ING cut its price target on the stock to 325p from 335p, while maintaining its "buy" recommendation. Other telecoms stocks in the doldrums included Cable & Wireless and Carphone Warehouse, and this group, with the addition of security firm G4S comprised the sum total of FTSE 100 stocks in the red today.
Week-end press reports that it is proposing to axe more than 1,000 jobs encouraged buying interest in Reed Elsevier.
Rumours that Blackstone Group LP and CVC Capital Partners are planning to counter Punch Taverns' bid for Mitchells & Butlers lifted the latter.
Bookmaker William Hill was marked up after Credit Suisse raised its rating from "underperform" to "outperform".
Housebuilders such as Barratt Developments and Galliford Try got a boost from the latest survey from property web site Rightmove which suggests that house sellers feel confident enough to start ramping up asking prices again. Barratt was especially buoyant on week-end press reports that quashed fears it is close to breaking its banking covenants.
Investment firm 3i Infrastructure confirmed that it is considering a 90p per share cash offer for renewable energy firm Novera Energy.
Support services firm Serco has been selected by Glasgow City Council as its joint venture partner for an IT project worth £256m over ten years.
Oxford Instruments climbed higher after it emerged that Ameriprise Financial has a 5.06% stake in the company. Also on the rise was Birmingham City - the share price, not the football club - after chairman David Sullivan lifted his stake in "The Blues" to 23.25%.
Rail maintenance specialist Jarvis was another stock on the move as a result of stake-building news. Various entities owned or controlled by Barclays now own a 6.25% stake in the company. Meanwhile travel specialist Hogg Robinson received a boost from news that Henderson Global Investors has 5.91% of the company.
Tool Hire firm Speedy Hire said the positive trading reported during the interims have continued in the third quarter and added that it is confident full year results will be in line with expectations.
Clinical trial technology provider ClinPhone has rejected an offer from US clinical contract services firm Parexel International.
Northern Petroleum said total gas production for 2007 was 6.61% higher than the previous operator's revised forecasts of June 2007.
Oxonica motored forward after a successful trial of its Envirox fuel borne catalyst by transport group Stagecoach. The latest trial demonstrated a statistically significant fuel saving of 4.3% after 3 months.
Textiles and flooring company Low & Bonar rose sharply following a 52% increase in pre-tax profit before amortisation and non-recurring items.
Data storage company Plasmon was friendless after saying investment in a faster growth strategy has prompted it to defer its cash break-even target to second half of financial year 2009.
Oil and gas exploration company Rockhopper leapt higher after confirming the presence of multiple drilling targets in North Falkland Basin licences PL032 and PL033.
In contrast, fellow oil and gas explorer Empyrean falls back after deciding not to proceed with any of the Margarita deep prospects off the coast of Texas.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Barclays (BARC) 460.00p +7.60%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 424.50p +7.26%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,620.00p +5.81%
Schroders NV (SDRC) 884.50p +5.42%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,180.00p +5.21%
HBOS (HBOS) 639.00p +5.01%
Prudential (PRU) 622.00p +4.89%
Schroders (SDR) 974.00p +4.67%
Aviva (AV.) 578.00p +4.52%
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BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,618.00p +4.32%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Cable & Wireless (CW.) 170.20p -0.29%
BT Group (BT.A) 234.25p -0.21%
Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW) 304.75p -0.08%
G4S (GFS) 215.50p 0.00%
Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) 789.00p +0.38%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 304.75p +0.74%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 261.75p +0.77%
Sage Group (SGE) 217.00p +0.93%
Resolution (RSL) 680.00p +1.04%
Reuters Group (RTR) 606.50p +1.08%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 126.00p +12.75%
Morgan Sindall (MGNS) 1,012.00p +8.53%
Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 209.75p +7.84%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 394.75p +6.98%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,058.00p +5.80%
New Star Asset Management Group (NSAM) 101.00p +5.21%
Henderson Group (HGI) 97.25p +5.14%
Croda International (CRDA) 560.00p +4.97%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 305.00p +4.90%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 1,063.00p +4.83%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
CSR (CSR) 415.00p -3.71%
DSG International (DSGI) 64.50p -1.90%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 27.50p -1.79%
Cobham (COB) 178.25p -1.52%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 178.25p -1.52%
Cattles (CTT) 265.25p -1.49%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 185.50p -1.46%
Telecity Group (TCY) 241.50p -1.43%
Interserve (IRV) 436.50p -1.24%
Greggs (GRG) 4,532.00p -1.13%
