UK Home Prices, Auto Registration Decline; LSE Volume Falls

Arthi Gupta
06 Jan, 2012
New York City

The UK indexes gained but home prices and new car registration fell in December. The UK home prices declined 0.9% and new car registrations declined 4.4% in 2011. The LSE Group reported a fall in trading in December.

[R]3:00 PM London – The UK indexes gained but home prices and new car registration fell in December. The UK home prices declined 0.9% and new car registrations declined 4.4% in 2011. The LSE Group reported a fall in trading in December.[/R]

The UK indexes climbed and new car registration and home prices declined in December.

Investors also focused on the statistics that the U.S. non-farm payrolls rose more than expected in December. The private sector gains were trimmed by the cuts in the government payrolls and the December same store sales met expectations.

Yesterday, U.S. retailers reported improved comparable-store sales for December on higher sales in last two weeks to Christmas Day but needed heavy discounting.

However, the euro zone worries overhang the market sentiment as bond yields rose and Italy and Spain prepare to ramp up debt auctions next week. Markets were also unnerved after the new government in Spain estimated deficit in the social security account of €668 million compared to a slight surplus estimated earlier.

In London, FTSE 100 Index gained 46.70 or 0.8% to 5,670.05 and the pound edged lower to $1.5458.

For the week, the FTSE 100 Index rose 2.9%.

UK Home Prices Drop

The UK home prices declined 0.9% in December from a month ago to £160,063, survey data released by the Lloyds Banking Group''s Halifax division showed today.

In the fourth quarter, home prices fell 0.1% compared to a rise by the same amount in the third quarter.

UK New Car Sales Fall

New car registrations in the UK declined 4.4% in 2011 from the previous year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said.

The number of units sold last year was 1.94 million.

Registrations in December fell 3.7% from a year ago to 119,188 units, marking the tenth monthly decline in the year.

Gainers & Losers

easyJet Plc gained 2.3% to 392.20 pence after the low-cost airline said load factor, a capacity utilization measure, declined 0.2 percentage points to 85.6% in December from 85.8% last year.

Total passengers, representing the number of earned seats flown, for the month were 4.14 million, up 13.1% from 3.66 million a year ago.

London Stock Exchange Group plc dipped 0.2% to 782.50 pence after the exchange operator reported a drop in combined value of December trades to £128.1 billion from £143.8 billion a year ago. A total of 24.4 million trades were recorded for December 2011.

Melrose Resources plc rose 0.9% to 119 pence after the oil and gas explorer announced amendments to its gas sales contracts with Bulgargaz EAD, a gas utility company owned by the Republic of Bulgaria, and privately-held Agropolychim JSC.

Smith & Nephew Plc climbed 0.3% to 608 pence after the medical technology firm said the FDA cleared the pocket-sized PICO system, a single use Negative Pressure Wound Therapy.

Terrace Hill Group PLC fell 2.4% to 14.88 pence after the property development group reported fiscal year 2011 pre-tax loss of £10.2 million compared to last year''s pre-tax profit of £17.8 million.

Vodafone Group PLC advanced 2% to 180.80 on a broker speculation.