Sector movers: HBOS soars on director buying
Banks are on the march today, taking their lead from their US counterparts after yesterday's improved bid for Bears Stearns from JP Morgan Chase.
HBOS leads the way up after directors increased their shareholdings in the bank last week.
Last Thursday, non-executive director Charles Dunstone bought 100,000 shares for 446.48p a share and executive directors acquired a combined total of more than 260,000 shares using bonus entitlements, at 446.25p a share.
The biggest of these purchases was by chief executive Andy Hornby, who took 92,812 shares, lifting his stake to more than 721,000 shares.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said Wednesday it is looking into allegations of potential market abuse after rumours that HBOS is in need of emergency funding sent the bank's shares down 17%.
With shares advancing on a broad front as an appetite for risk returns to London, the defensive appeal of tobacco stocks is suddenly out of favour. Both BATs and Imperial Group are among the half dozen or so Footsie constituents that are in the red.
BATs announced today that it is dividing up its European operations into two separate units with effect from 1 January 2009, following the proposed acquisition of Scandinavian tobacco company Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni.
Jean-Marc Levy is joining the management board as regional director for responsibility for Western Europe, while David Bell is taking on the role of regional director for Eastern Europe.
Levy is currently Area Director for Central Europe while Bell is currently Area Director for Australasia.
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Top performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 4,627.60 +6.15%
Banks 8,059.70 +5.87%
Chemicals 5,277.70 +5.02%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 194.40 +5.02%
General Financial 6,774.00 +4.91%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Tobacco 23,845.00 -2.04%
