Early FTSE risers end the day even stronger.
The FTSE 100 (UKX) doesn't seem to know where it's going these days. One minute, the slightest bit of news from Europe sends it up or own, only for it to revert back to form once the latest novelty has worn off.
But after yesterday's "Greece is saved.. no it isn't" ups and downs, the FTSE 100 had a strong day today along with other European indexes, and finished the day up 97 points on 5,588.
But there's still a long way to go before any of these daily and weekly meanderings turn into any kind of meaningful fundamental trend.
A good day for retail and telecoms
Early market movements today were reinforced in later trading, with Home Retail (LSE: HOME) ending the day 23% up, at 91p, after full-year results showed that the slide in sales at its Argos high-street outlet has apparently been halted. Dixons Retail (LSE: DXNS) followed up its early morning rise to end on 16p, ahead 17% on the day, on hopes that it too will see a retail recovery in its Thursday results.
Global telecoms giant Vodafone (LSE: VOD) gained a modest 3p to 178p after announcing a successful outcome of its offer to buy Cable & Wireless Worldwide (LSE: CW) as part of its takeover deal.
Telecoms tiddler Daisy Group (LSE: DAY), which has been making acquisitive inroads into the SME communications market, displayed a 31% growth in revenues in its preliminary results today, and showed signs of underlying profitability. The result was a modest 1% gain to 94p.
An early 8% rise at Whitbread (LSE: WTB) subsided a little, after the restaurant and hotel chain released positive Q1 results, and the price settled to a 6.3% gain on the day, to 1,965p.
Mixed results for engineers and techies
Engineer Kentz (LSE: KENZ), which enjoyed a 7% morning rise on news that its order book is looking healthy, saw its gain strengthened later in the day to reach market close of 365p, up 12%, or 40p, on the day.
Military specialist Chemring Group (LSE: CHG), which lost in early trading after disappointing interims, saw its share price fall further during the day to end 10% down on 292p, for a loss of 31p on the day. But online media experts Imagination Technologies (LSE: IMG) recovered a little from an early 8% fall to finish 5% down on 450p.
Diggers and delvers
In the natural resources sector, Serica Energy (LSE: SQZ) released results of its latest seismic study in Namibia, and though it was favourable, the shares only moved up 1% to 24p. But Polo Resources (LSE: POL) enjoyed a 7% rise to 2.6p after it upped its estimates of its gold reserves in Sierra Leone. But sadly for Vatukoula Gold Mines (LSE: VGM), a disappointing Q3 update led to its shares losing 17% to end on 30p, 6p down on the day.
Real-estate manager Hammerson (LSE: HMSO) lost 2.6% on the day, after announcing the sale of its London office assets, to end on 428p.
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> Alan Oscroft does not own any share mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares in Imagination Technologies.
