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- Hays 95.05
+0.10 - Jz Capital 515.00
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- Watermark Glb. 0.10 +0.01
FTSE ends with modest gains on strong blue chip earnings
Thursday, 26th April 2012
END-OF-DAY REPORT: Headline shares ended a bumpy session with modest gains, with a flurry of largely positive blue chips earnings news offsetting weakness in the mining and retail sectors.At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 29.83 points at 5,748.72 with the FTSE250 ahead 26.93 points at 11,361.38 and the FTSE Smallcaps 1.3 points lower at 3,098.63.
NEW YORK
US stocks were higher in late morning trade as ongoing strength in technology issues outweighed the dulling effect of disappointing jobless claims data.
Heading into the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 51 points at 13,142, the S&P500 ticked up 2 points at 1,393 and the Nasdaq Composite added 6 points at 3,035.
LONDON MARKETS
A flurry of blue chip earnings set the stage today, accounting for the biggest gainer and the heaviest loser of the session in the form of Whitbread and AstraZeneca.
Barclays kicked off the bank reporting season with a forecast-beating rise in first-quarter adjusted pretax profits to just under £2.5bn. The group raised its PPI provision by a further £300m and warned of tough times ahead. Barclays shares ticked up 2p at 213p. Elsewhere, Lloyds added 0.98p at 31.48p and Royal Bank of Scotland edged up 0.36p at 23.58p.
First quarter earnings at oil major Shell beat expectations, jumping to $7.279bn from $6.288bn in the prior year period. Shell shares advanced 77.5p at 2,266.5p on the news, while BP rose 11.95p at 444.25p and BG Group improved 18.5p at 1,430.5p on the read across.
Mining issues were mixed, but Randgold Resources was the best of the sector, up 275p at 5,620p, and Fresnillo gained 17p at 1,614p as the price of gold ticked up.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto slipped 8p at 3,472p and Vedanta Resources sagged 5p at 1,220p, while Kazakhmys weakened 11p at 871p after reporting a fall in copper cathode output.
Household goods conglomerate Unilever jumped 56p at 2,135p, after reporting sales growth of 8.4% in Q1 and saying it was on target for the full-year.
Cigarette maker British American Tobacco added 27.5p at 3,176.5p after reporting increased revenues and volumes but warning currency headwinds have adversely affected results. Peer Imperial Tobacco gained 4p at 2,503p in sympathy.
However, coffee-house to hotels group Whitbread topped the leaderboard. rising 112p at 1,921p after full-year sales and profits beat expectations as the Costa coffee chain continued to grow.
On the downside with blue chips, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was the worst performer on the main index, tumbling 174.5p at 2,666.5p as first-quarter profits slumped 38%, hit by competition from generics. The company also announced the departure of its CEO in June.
Tesco led the supermarket operators lower, down 3.1p at 313.9p, while Sainsbury lost 0.3p at 307.6p and Morrisons fell 0.1p at 285.1p.
Aerospace engineering group Meggitt eased 2.2p at 407.8p, despite revealing pretax profit growth of 26% in the first quarter.
Car insurance specialist Admiral slumped 36p at 1,195p after an in-line first-quarter was accompanied by warnings of slowing UK growth.
Story provided by StockMarketWire.com
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