BF: FTSE makes strong early gains as banks and miners recover
Business Financial Newswire - MORNING REPORT: Headline shares made strong early gains as banks and miners recovered, the market taking a lead from a late rally on Wall Street overnight and gains across Asian bourses this morning.
At 8:30am, the FTSE100 was up 52.52 points at 4,993.2 with the FTSE250 ahead 125.87 points at 9,315.22 and the FTSE Smallcaps 10.84 points better at 2,692.81.
US & ASIA
In the US last night, the Dow lost 23 points at 10,044, the Nasdaq Composite fell 3 points at 2,211 and the S&P500 was flat at 1,074.
In Asia today, the Nikkei was up 62.77 points at 9,522.66, while the Hang Seng was recently ahead 129.19 points at 19,114.69.
LONDON MARKETS
Markets across Europe rebounded this morning, taking a lead from a late rally on Wall Street last night and surging Asian bourses. In London, banking stocks helped underpin the early strength as some confidence returned that Eurozone countries were taking firm action to reduce deficits, with Italy joining the list of constituents announcing swingeing budget cuts.
Lloyds headed the banking sector, gaining 1.92p at 52.44p, while Royal Bank of Scotland added 1.36p at 44.06p and Barclays rose 7.75p at 291.55p.
Mining issues made strong progress as metals prices recovered, with Rio Tinto topping the blue chip leaderboard, up 118p at 2,974p as CEO Tom Albanese announced ahead of its AGM that it was re-evaluating all projects in Australia under the worst-case tax scenario. BHP Billiton added 52.5p at 1,816p and Xstrata rose 30p at 949.5p.
Luxury goods retailer Burberry jumped 23.5p at 636p after revealing a surge in profits in the year to end-March and hiked its dividend 17%.
Supermarket operators were in focus on reports that Wal-Mart's Asda was losing market share to John Lewis's Waitrose. Morrisons added 2.5p at 260.1p, Tesco grew 3.8p at 393.85p and Sainsbury ticked up 1.2p at 314.8p.
British Airways added 4.8p at 189p on announcing it is to launch a legal challenge against the ongoing strike action by Unite, shrugging off concerns that the bill for the disruption was climbing fast.
Holidays were back on the shopping list, with Thomas Cook rising 2.8p at 199.1p, TUI travel up 2.1p at 225.8p and Carnival 26p higher at 2532p.
On the limited downside with blue chips, National Grid slumped to the foot of the table, down 65.3p at 490.7p, while International Power lost 5.3p at 283.7p.
Oil majors remained under pressure as BP continues to struggle with solving its US oil spillage problems and crude stayed below the $70 a barrel level. BP shares lost 5p at 480.2p, while Shell fell 6.5p at 1,686.5p.
