This Week's Market Movers
|
What goes up, must come down. And then back up again apparently...
After last week's drop the markets rallied, with the FTSE 100, 350 and All Share indices all reporting gains.
In fact, there were only ten fallers in the FTSE 100 (the 'Footsie') this week, and the index ended up 4.3%, standing at 5729.70 on Friday morning.
Biggest Movers in the FTSE 350 (as at Friday 10.15)
After being dogged by malicious rumours last week, HBOS
(LSE: HBOS)
, Britain's biggest lender recovered strongly, and was the Footsie's biggest riser, up nearly 17%.
In fact, several banks deposited large gains, bolstered by positive sentiment across the waters in Wall Street.
RBS
(LSE: RBS)
and Barclays
(LSE: BARC)
were both up 6.5%. Lloyds TSB
(LSE: LLOY)
climbed 4.2% and HSBC
(LSE: HSBA)
gained 2%.
With the price of precious metals on the rise, resource stocks were also up.
Kazakhmys
(LSE: KAZ)
recovered from last week's fall, up 10.4% after revealing that the Kazakhstan government was considering building a stake of 15%. Eurasian Natural Resources
(LSE: ENRC)
, which also operates in Kazakhstan, also climbed 10%.
Elsewhere, Aquarius Platinum
(LSE: AQP)
was up 22.6%. Anglo American
(LSE: AAL)
shot up 15%, Vedanta Resources
(LSE: VED)
was up 12% and Rio Tinto
(LSE: RIO)
flashed up 9.4%.
Xstrata
(LSE: XTA)
took an early hit this week, as bid talks with Brazilian suitor Vale collapsed. Shares still ended up 3.4%.
Oil stocks were also bubbling this week. Tullow Oil
(LSE: TLW)
shot up 5.9%. Both Royal Dutch Shell A
(LSE: RDSA)
and B
(LSE: RDSB)
climbed nearly 5% and BP
(LSE: BP.)
gushed up 3%.
Housebuilders enjoyed a late week rally.
The sector was boosted by the news that Toscafund Asset Management bought large stakes in both Redrow
(LSE: RDW)
and Taylor Wimpey
(LSE: TW.)
. This sent shares up 14% and 10.8% respectively.
Other housebuilders followed. Barratt Developments
(LSE: BDEV)
climbed 8.9% and Persimmon
(LSE: PSN)
firmed 6.4%.
Debenhams
(LSE: DEB)
was the biggest faller in the FTSE 350, as Britain's second largest department store suffered its steepest decline since returning to the stock market in 2006.
Shares plummeted 17% after Merrill Lynch offloaded nearly 47.3 million shares in a massive cut price sale.
Elsewhere on the retail front, investors were filling their shopping trolleys with supermarket shares.
J Sainsbury
(LSE: SBRY)
was up 4.8% on the back of a positive trading update, and Marks and Spencer
(LSE: MKS)
gained 3.2%.
Tesco
(LSE: TSCO)
was up by a marginal 0.4%. But in the retailer's own words, every little helps...
Notable announcements next week
Monday: Cairn Energy, Eastern Platinum
Tuesday: Bloomsbury Publishing
Wednesday: Woolworths
Thursday: China Medical System Holdings, SMG
Friday: Metalrax
Trading announcements are expected from Babcock International Group, Marston's, Mothercare and Victrex.
