FTSE halts decline as Vodafone and BP boost
Britain's leading share index stopped short of a fifth day of falls as it climbed by 0.1 per cent by 10.54 GMT, reaching 5930. The FTSE 100 had seen four consecutive sessions of falls as the market feared the lack of growth and the re-emergence of eurozone debt worries.
Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Wednesday, May 18, 2011
However, Vodafone was one of the star performers of the day, adding 0.86 per cent as it announced strong full year results and optimistic predictions for upcoming trade.
BP was another of the blue-chip's heavyweights helping to support the index, climbing by 1.2 per cent as it reported the disintegration of its deal with Rosneft, Russian state-controlled firm. However many investors viewed the collapse as positive for BP saving them from an almost certain 'sweetener' payment.
Other energy firms also traded well, with Essar Energy climbing 3.8 per cent, the top riser on the leader board following a positive trading update.
Defensive stocks were out of favour as brokers advised against them, with GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco both sliding, with losses of 1.6 and 0.9 per cent respectively.
Invensys also drooped by 1.1 per cent as it was downgraded to 'neutral' just prior to the reporting of its annual results later this week. Sector peer IMI was also out of favour amongst investors, shedding 3.9 per cent as it failed to make a significant impact on the European MSCI index.
The inflation data for April also impacted the market, with a rise to 4.5 per cent, up 0.5 per cent from the previous month.
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