FTSE regains 1pc to 5,771, commodities and banks perform

Erasing Thursday's losses, the FTSE 100 climbed by 1.02 per cent today mostly on the back of miners and resource stocks. Fresnillo was the best performer for today's trading, up 3.51 per cent. Banks reacted positively to improving economic indicators providing additional support for the market, leading the FTSE 100 to close up 58.28 points to 5,770.98

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Friday, April 09, 2010

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Miners suffered substantial losses over the past few days as investors took profit but regained some of those losses in today's trading. Dominating the leader board were gains from Fresnillo, Xstrata and Anglo American, up 3.51, 2.85 and 2.51% per cent respectively. Xstrata gained on rumours of it acquiring a fellow Australian, Macarthur.

Another stellar performer, Aviva climbed by 2.29 per cent to close at 388p. Aviva announced that it will be re-entering the Asian general insurance market, a market it exited five years ago when it sold off all non-life interests. Standard Life and Prudential also attracted interest, climbing 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

FTSE 250 stocks also did well, with the mid-cap index gaining 0.81 per cent to close at 10,463.28 as rising stocks vastly outnumbered losing ones. Following a ratings upgrade from S&P Yell Group gained 4.88 per cent or 2 pence.

Analysts are predicting that UK markets may move sideways for the next couple of weeks, trying to respond to changing election poll numbers. Concerns about Greece's ability to service its sovereign debt remain a factor. Even though it appears likely that Greece will be rescued by the IMF sentiment was not helped by S&P's decision to downgrade the country's credit rating by two notches. The upcoming Q1 earnings report season for US companies will give further indications on the emerging global recovery.

 

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