FTSE pulls 50 points clear of 4600 barrier
The London market looked set to end the week in fine style today after the FTSE 100 Index put on more than 50 points to pull clear of the 4600 barrier.
Upbeat news on the mortgage market from Northern Rock gave blue-chip shares an ideal start and helped the Footsie to set new two-year highs with a rise of 56.2 points to 4627 by mid-morning.
The performance also reflected a feeling in the market that its reaction to yesterday’s surprise product withdrawal by drugs giant Merck had been overdone.
Even gloomy manufacturing figures, showing overall activity at its lowest level since July last year, failed to derail confidence.
The main driving force came from Northern Rock after it boosted sentiment in the sector by reporting little impact from the cooling house market.
Northern Rock put on more than 2% or 16p to 726p, while rival HBOS advanced 10p to 756p and Abbey National added 6p to 566p.
The positive mood of the market was also helped by telecoms stocks with BT Group ahead 4p at 183.25p, Vodafone 2.5p stronger at 134.75p and mmO2 up 1.25p to 99.5p as it continued to benefit from yesterday’s positive trading update.
British Gas owner Centrica picked up a penny to stand at 252p after announcing it was buying drain cleaning firm Dyno-Rod for £57.6m (€83.4m).
Among a handful of stocks in negative territory, supermarket chain Sainsbury’s fell 3.75p to 251p after being the subject of a broker downgrade.
Elsewhere, shares in Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries failed to make gains despite impressive summer sales figures from the Midlands-based beer maker and pub owner. Shares were unchanged at 888p.
And there was a gain of more than 10% – up 6p to 63p – for Christian Salvesen after the struggling logistics group said it was involved in merger talks.
