FTSE, flat today, finishes second quarter down 13.4%

Today's trading saw the FTSE 100 index up by 2.65 points or 0.1 per cent. Weak mining and banking stocks weighed heavily on the index but a strong performance from AstraZeneca kept the index in the green as it closed at 4,916.87. This is 13.4% lower than at the start of Q2 2010.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Wednesday, June 30, 2010

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Worries about the stability of the banking sector continued and sent banking stocks lower. Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered all moved down but Barclays managed to gain 1.2 per cent on the back of a reassuring investor seminar.

Speculation about a potential bid from ExxonMobil gave shares in BP a boost. The British oil giant managed to move up by 5.28 per cent, closing at 318.90p though this is still nearly 52 per cent lower than its recent peak in April. Also on the positive side was AstraZeneca which won an important patent case over one of its biggest blockbusters, the stock moved up by 7.53 per cent.

The main drag on the FTSE through today's trading session was weak mining stocks. Kazakhmys and Eurasian Natural Resources were worst off, losing 3.7 and 3.6 per cent respectively. Other mining stocks moved down by 1.5 per cent or more.

MAN Group, the hedge fund manager, also served to push FTSE 100 stocks down as it lost 7.26 per cent of its value through the day's trading as it traded ex dividend. Vodafone suffered from a ratings downgrade, ending the day 2.2 per cent lower.

 

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