Stormy day for FTSE stocks as investors fret over economy

Today the FTSE 100 index is subject to a number of investor concerns while benefiting from a few bright spots. After an early morning dip the index of Britain's biggest stocks raced up, only to drop again by 10:00 BST. By mid-day the FTSE 100 index was up 0.5 per cent but at 13:15 BST the index traded around its opening level of 5,245.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Thursday, August 12, 2010

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Yesterday's news from the Bank of England as well as the US central bank pointed towards an economic slowdown. Figures from China is not encouraging either and investors are getting the overall impression that the global economy is slowing down, shunning risky stocks including miners and banks.

Miners Eurasian Natural Resources, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Kazakhmys all showed losses of between 1.3 and 1.9 per cent. Banks Barclays and Investec are down 3.06 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively while Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are struggling to break even.

Bucking the bad news trend is Prudential and Cairn Energy. Investors expressed interest in strong interim results from Prudential and takeover talks surrounding Cairn Energy. Around midday Cairn Energy moved up by 1.9 per cent and Prudential moved up by 0.62 per cent.

Defensive stocks are doing well, providing solid support for the FTSE. Pharma group GlaxoSmithKline is up 2.06 per cent, water company United Utilities is up 1.27 per cent, energy major Centrica is up 2.6 per cent and British American Tobacco is up by around 1 per cent.

 

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