Markets creep higher as investors hope for US action

The UK blue chip index ended the day higher on Wednesday as the markets took an optimistic view ahead of the US Federal Reserve update on Friday. By the close of trade the FTSE 100 index was higher by over 76 points, climbing by 1.5 per cent to reach 5205, after plunging to a session low of 5098 earlier in the day.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Thursday, August 25, 2011

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ARM Holdings

Investors appeared to be hoping for some assertive action from the US with an update from Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman due at the end of the week. Rumours circulated the market that the US would be confirming that a third round of quantitative easing would be taking place but analysts warned that there was a very strong chance this would not be the case.

The technology hardware sector was the top performing on the day with an overall increase of 3.65 per cent, driven by heavyweight ARM Holdings. The specialist chip designer climbed by 3.11 per cent as it was given a boost by news over Apple's iPhone which uses ARM technology and could mean an increase in sales.

Peer IQE was also up by 2.61 per cent as it announced it had appointed a new sales and marketing chief for the Asia Pacific area, who was expected to use his experience to maximise growth in the region.

Non-life insurers stayed in the red with an overall loss of 2.92 per cent, with Admiral Group one of the heaviest fallers. The insurance giant tumbled by 11.86 per cent despite reporting a 27 per cent increase in profits, with investors more concerned over the poor ratio between the underwriters and the released reserves. Its fellow insurer Amlin also suffered a torrid time, adding 3.25 per cent to the 11 per cent fall already seen this week, after it reported heavy losses due to 'unprecedented' catastrophe claims.

 

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