London close: Stocks close off their highs
London shares finished off their highs despite the welcome boost from an initiative announced by five central banks to pump up to $258bn into the financial system to help alleviate the credit crisis. Nevertheless, rises among Footsie still constituents outnumbered falls by two to one at the close.
UK banks have reacted positively to the central bank intervention, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HBOS scoring the best gains.
Cairn Energy and BP steered the oil sector higher, in line with the soaring oil price.
Property groups Hammerson and Land Securities were also to the fore.
GFS was among the top risers after the security specialist said strong growth in emerging markets helped lift underlying sales by nearly 15% in 2007.
Cadbury Schweppes advanced on news that the confectionery group is to shunt nearly half of its debt into the beverages division when it is demerged.
Life group Friends Provident is to halve its dividend payouts going forward after huge one-off charges sent it into the red in 2007. The group is also to lose its Finance Director in the summer. The shares were up on hopes US private equity group JC Flowers will ride to the rescue.
Vodafone improved after Goldman Sachs added the stock to their conviction buy list.
Talks regarding the sale of insurer Old Mutual's 77% stake in Mutual & Federal to investor group Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH) have been called off after the pair failed to agree terms.
Antofagasta fell on results that saw turnover and profits slide for the year as sales and realised prices of copper fell. Xstrata was weaker still as bid hopes fade.
Industrial ceramics group Cookson reported a 14% jump in full year pre-tax profits and said it expects a continued strong performance in 2008.
Inter-dealer broker Tullett Prebon advanced after it said it made progress during 2007 and achieved results in line with expectations in generally favourable market conditions.
Property asset manager Capital & Regional moved up, despite its UK portfolio falling in value by 10% last year. The group said it tenant markets have held up well, and its diversification into Germany is showing rewards.
Another company taking heart from its German operations was Computacenter. The IT solutions group lifted annual underlying profits by 12% with the group confident about the current year.
OCZ which makes high-end components for computer geeks, celebrated a swing into profitability by adding around 50% to its overnight share price, though it is still down almost 75% on the year. Underlying profit in 2007 was $2.2m, compared to a loss of $1.7m last year.
Trakm8 motored forward after being awarded a £0.35m grant by the Technology Strategy Board to be an industry partner in the Future Intelligent Systems - Freeflow traffic management project.
High street bakery group Greggs reported a 11.9% jump in full year pre-tax profits and said it has made a good start to the new year despite continuing pressure from rising energy and raw material costs.
Building maintenance group Interserve revealed a better than expected 26% increase in full year pre-tax profit and said it has bagged over £200m of contracts in the UK and Middle East.
Project management firm AMEC moved into profit for the year and said it expects to make "significant" progress in 2008.
Weir said 2007 was its best operating year in its history and the engineer added that it is confident of achieving current market estimates.
Civil engineer Scott Wilson reported trading conditions have remained favourable during the third quarter with a good flow of new contracts.
Full year results at newspaper distributor and support services firm John Menzies have exceeded its expectations with a 6% increase in underlying pre-tax profit.
Finnish biotech Inion was in demand on recovery hopes despite more big losses last year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Cairn Energy (CNE) 2,989.00p +8.06%
Standard Life (SL.) 218.75p +5.42%
Barclays (BARC) 437.00p +5.11%
HBOS (HBOS) 589.50p +4.89%
G4S (GFS) 219.25p +4.65%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 344.75p +4.47%
Kingfisher (KGF) 131.70p +4.36%
TUI Travel (TT.) 255.50p +4.29%
Friends Provident (FP.) 124.00p +4.20%
Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY) 561.00p +3.99%
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FTSE 100 - Fallers
Yell Group (YELL) 176.60p -4.28%
Xstrata (XTA) 3,742.00p -2.40%
Amec (AMEC) 744.50p -2.17%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 543.00p -2.16%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 79.50p -1.97%
Tesco (TSCO) 403.00p -1.83%
British Airways (BAY) 238.00p -1.55%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,105.00p -1.55%
Shire (SHP) 941.50p -1.31%
ITV (ITV) 64.70p -1.22%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Capital & Regional (CAL) 553.00p +8.97%
Dimension Data Holdings (DDT) 50.50p +6.32%
Imperial Energy Corporation (IEC) 1,342.00p +5.92%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 432.00p +5.88%
COLT Telecom Group S.A. (COLT) 166.50p +5.71%
Quintain Estates & Development (QED) 465.00p +5.68%
Brit Insurance Holding (BRE) 226.50p +4.86%
Collins Stewart (CLST) 131.00p +4.80%
Cattles (CTT) 236.00p +4.77%
Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 514.00p +4.74%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Cookson Group (CKSN) 585.00p -7.14%
Carpetright (CPR) 677.50p -5.64%
Johnston Press (JPR) 150.50p -5.49%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 56.75p -5.02%
Hiscox (HSX) 236.00p -4.74%
Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) 165.25p -3.36%
easyJet (EZJ) 397.50p -3.28%
Northern Foods (NFDS) 87.00p -2.79%
PayPoint (PAY) 555.00p -2.46%
Laird Group (LARD) 475.50p -2.46%
