FTSE holding on to 5,400 on strong banks and miners

Even though the FTSE 100 index lost its early morning gains later in the morning it recovered by midday when the index was back up past the 5,400 level. By 12:40 BST the index traded at 5,402, up 0.67 per cent from yesterday.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Friday, August 06, 2010

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This morning's top performer is satellite communications company Inmarsat. Early trading saw the stock take a tumble as it announced that it plans on spending £2.5bn on upgrading its satellite fleet however investors had a change of heart, boosting the stock by over 8 per cent late morning. By midday the stock was up by 5.9 per cent.

Mining stocks continued their strong performance as Eurasian Natural Resources, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo and Xstrata gained 2 per cent or more. BP up 2.8 per cent is also seeing investor support; signs that its ballooning costs surrounding the Gulf spill is reaching a limit are boosting confidence.

Banks continued to post strong gains after yesterday's positive results was capped off this morning by RBS announcing a return to profitability. Royal Bank of Scotland Group moved up by 2.02 per cent in morning trading while Standard Chartered is up 2 per cent and Barclays is up 1.39 per cent.

Stocks gained broadly today but there were a number of stocks that lost favour with investors. Lonmin is experiencing a sell off after the South African government banned it from exporting certain minerals based on a prospecting rights dispute. Lonmin is down 3 per cent.

Unilever is also moving down as investors continue to show dismay over the drop in revenues it reported yesterday and as a major investment bank downgraded its rating. Unilever moved down by 1.8 per cent in morning trading.

 

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