Greek Debt News Lifts Banks

The ongoing British Airways (BA) saga took a new, albeit minor, twist on Tuesday afternoon, with management and the unions agreeing to a scheme whereby BA will fix pension contributions at £300 million per annum, but employees can increase their own contributions to maintain benefits at their current level.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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British Airways

BA remains at odds with nemesis Unite over changes to pay and working conditions, but the union, along with the GMB and the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA), was happy to agree to scaling back pension contributions. The agreement catapulted BA to the top of the FTSE 100 risers' board, with the beleaguered airline closing up 10.6p or 4.5% at 246p.

The wider FTSE 100 index also made some headway, closing up 26.58 points or 0.5% at 5,620.43 as banking, commodity and energy stocks found favour. Barclays continued to go well, closing up 8.85p or 2.54% at 357.45p after an upgrade from Morgan Stanley and was joined in positive territory by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), up 0.55p or 1.29% to 43.28p, Standard Chartered, up 19.5p or 1.13% to 1,751p and HSBC, up 2.5p or 0.37% at 683.5p.

It would appear that positive news on the debt crisis in Greece was enough to offset any nervousness investors may have felt ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later in the day. Eurozone finance ministers had apparently agreed a potential rescue plan for their beleaguered neighbours and Greece also escaped an immediate downgrade of its BBB+ credit rating from Standard & Poor's.

 

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