FTSE Close: Serco down; ARM, Bunzl, Fresnillo up

 

17.00 (close)

People walk past London's Stock Exchange

Better-than-expected economic data in the United States provided a late session boost for London's blue chip share index today.

A surprise jump in consumer confidence helped turn fortunes around on the FTSE 100 Index, which closed 23.7 points up at 5225.2 after spending much of the day deep in the red.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average in the US also made headway, despite having slipped below the 10,000 mark in early trading.

Sentiment improved after the US Conference Board said its consumer confidence index improved to 53.5 in August, up from a revised 51.0 in July and higher than many had forecast.

But economists warned it takes a reading of 90 to indicate a healthy economy and fears over the global recovery have proved hard to budge in recent weeks.

The pressure is likely to remain on world markets as more US economic reports come out this week, culminating in Friday's closely-watched non-farm payroll figures.

Global recovery worries have been impacting on the Japanese yen, which has soared to 15-year highs - prompting concerns that it could dent the country's exports.

Japan's central bank took moves to rein in its currency, but this failed to ease the yen's strength and sparked a sell-off in Asia overnight.

Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 3.6%, while market declines were compounded by news yesterday of a smaller than expected rise in US personal spending. The pound was hit amid today's recovery concerns, with sterling plunging against most major currencies.

The pound weakened by 0.8% to 1.53 dollars and more than 1% to 1.20 euros.

Among stocks, packaging giant Bunzl made strong gains after it grew first half revenues by 2%, despite headwinds from a difficult market in the UK and Ireland.

The firm's shares added 9p to 711p.

Miners staged a u-turn having languished in negative territory in early trading, helping push the top tier higher.

Silver miner Fresnillo was the sector's top riser, up 34p to 1090p.

IT firm Arm Holdings led the way, up 29p to 366.8p - a rise of 9% - as traders cited recent takeover activity elsewhere in the sector and general strength in technology stocks.

Outside the top tier, exploration firm Encore Oil was one of the session's biggest risers, up 18%, or 11.75p to 78p, after it hailed a 'superb' oil discovery off the coast of the Shetland Islands for its jointly-owned Cladhan well in the North Sea.

Elsewhere, self-storage group Safestore lifted after reporting a 9% leap in recent revenues.

The firm said space let in the three months to July was 26% up on last year, helping shares lift 8%, or 9p to 118.25p.

The biggest Footsie risers were Arm Holdings up 29p to 366.8p, Fresnillo ahead 34p to 1090p, Randgold Resources up 155p to 6080p and Royal Bank of Scotland up 1.1p to 44.6p.

The biggest Footsie fallers were InterContinental Hotels down 30p to 982p, Serco off 15p to 582p, BG Group down 17p to 1049.5p and Imperial Tobacco down 29p to 1800p.

16.00

A surprise jump in consumer confidence gave stocks a late session boost in the UK and on Wall Street, but European markets spent much of the day in the red after heavy falls in Asia.

The FTSE 100 Index rose 15.7 points to 5217.3, reversing earlier falls of nearly 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also clawed its way out of negative territory after slipping below the 10,000 mark in early trading.

The US Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index improved to a better-than-expected 53.5 in August, up from a revised 51.0 in July - but economists warned it takes a reading of 90 to indicate a healthy economy.

Fears over the global recovery have proved hard to budge in recent weeks and the concerns took their toll on the pound today, with sterling dropping to 1.53 against the dollar and 1.20 against the euro.

12.45

The Footsie is down 50 points to 5151.6 after Monday's UK holiday and futures trading pointed to another day of losses on Wall Street following a more than 1% decline yesterday.

The fallers board is littered with mining and banking stocks as concerns over the outlook dominate.

Barclays is one of the leading casualties in the top flight, down 8.7p to 295.3p, followed by part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group down 1.6p to 67.1p.

Eurasian Natural Resources was the worst hit mining stock, down 22.5p to 834p, or 3%.

Elsewhere, Self-storage group Safestore has shrugged off wider market losses after reporting a 9% leap in recent revenues. The firm said space let in the three months to July was 26% up on last year, helping shares lift 2%, or 2.5p to 111.75p.

11.30

Encore Oil shares surged today after the British oil and gas explorer announced it had made a major discovery at its Cladhan well in the North Sea.

Shares in the small cap firm gained as much as 24%, or 12.25p to 78.5p.

Elsewhere in the quick-moving minnows market, UTV Media jumped 8.75p to 114.75p after the Northern Irish broadcaster posted a 17% rise in first-half pretax profit.

10.00

London shares fell sharply on the open today as fears grew over the sustainability of the global economic turnarounf.

The FTSE 100 index was last down shed 61.4 points at 5,140.2, as traders returned to their desks after the bank holiday.

The retreat in London followed heavy falls overnight around the world as nagging concerns about the pace of economic recovery in the uS particularly dented investors' confidence.

Wall Street slid 1.3% last night as a statement from President Barack Obama fell failed to ease worries that the US recovery is faltering, while investors looked ahead with caution to important economic data coming this week.

Tokyo stocks shed 3.6% overnight, their worst daily drop in three months, after the Bank of Japan's emergency moves the day before failed to curb the yen's strength and disheartened investors bailed out of the market.

'There has been a concern for some time now that central banks have been running out of ammunition in term of ways of being able to stimulate the economy,' Richard Hunter, head of UK Equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said.

In London, the banking sector led the falls with Barclays off 9.2p to 295p.

Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys was the top Footsie faller, down 26p to 1,112p.

British outsourcing company Serco was another big faller, down 18.5p to 578.5p as BofA Merrill Lynch cut its rating to 'neutral' from 'buy' ahead of the UK spending review in October.

On the upside, chipmaker Arm Holdings, which has been the subject of takeover speculation involving its customer Apple recently, rose 3.3% after US peer Intel unveiled a deal to buy German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG's.

Bucking the trend also is districutor Bunzl, which supplies carrier bags, take-away boxes and hard hats: its shares rose 13p to 715p after it beat forecasts with an 8% rise in first-half profit, after completing two acquisitions and signalling it would buy more in the coming year.

Meanwhile, British consumer confidence unexpectedly improved in August for the first time since February thanks to a more positive view on the economic outlook, a survey showed.