UK Jobless Claims Climb, Unemployment Rate at 8.4%

Arthi Gupta
14 Mar, 2012
New York City

The UK indexes advanced tracking U.S. and European markets. The number of people claiming jobless allowance in the UK rose more than estimated in February. Tullow fiscal 2011 sales and pre-tax profit surged. Legal & General soared 5.4%.

[R]3:45 PM London – The UK indexes advanced tracking U.S. and European markets. The number of people claiming jobless allowance in the UK rose more than estimated in February. Tullow fiscal 2011 sales and pre-tax profit surged. Legal & General soared 5.4%.[/R]

The UK indexes gained following the advance in international markets on the improving economic data from the U.S. However, UK jobless claims rose more than estimated in February.

The euro area member states today formally approved the second bailout for Greece and also authorised the EFSF to release the first instalment of €39.4 billion to be disbursed in several tranches.

In London trading, the benchmark index FTSE 100 gained 27.61 or 0.5% to 5,983.09 and the pound edged higher to $1.5712. The benchmark index in the year is up 7.3%.

Markets in Asia and Europe continued their advances as world economic sentiment improves after a string of positive economic data from the U.S. For the year, the Nasdaq led the advance in the U.S. with a rise of 17% followed by a gain of 11% in the S&P 500.

The market index in Japan is now up 19% and in India and Hong Kong are up 16%. The benchmark index in Frankfurt is up 20% in the year so far and in Paris gained 13.2%.

UK Jobless Claims Rise

UK jobless claims increased more than expected in February, the Office for National Statistics said today.

The number of people claiming jobless allowance rose by 7,200 from a month ago to 1.61 million in February.

The unemployment rate among youth in the age group of 16 to 24 years surged 22.5% during the November-January period and increased by 16,000 over the quarter to 1.04 million.

The overall unemployment rate for the three months through January held steady at 8.4%, the highest in 16 years.

During three months to January, the unemployment rate was 8.4% of the economically active population, up 0.1 percentage point from the three months to October. There were 2.67 million unemployed people in the UK during the period, up 28,000 on the quarter.

The claimant count rate was 5% in February, unchanged from the previous month, but up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier.

Gainers & Losers

Ingersoll-Rand plc rose 1.5% to $40.60 after the diversified industrial company confirmed its 2012 estimate of earnings per share from continuing operations between $2.90 and $3.10 and revenues between $14 billion and $14.4 billion.

Legal & General Group Plc soared 5.4% to 132.10 pence after financial asset manager said operating profit in 2011 rose to £1,056 million from £1,002 million in 2010.

The company raised its annual dividend by 35% to 6.40 pence a share.

Smiths Group plc fell 1.8% to 1,081 pence after the technology company said for the six months ended January 28, revenues increased 3% to £1,415 million from £1,372 million in the prior year. Operating profit for the period gained 2% to £244 million compared to £239 million last year.

Tullow Oil plc climbed 1.3% to 1,473 pence after the independent oil and gas explorer said fiscal 2011 sales surged 111% to $2,304 million from $1,090 million in 2010. Pre-tax profit for the year soared 499% $1,073 million from $179 million last year.

WPP Plc increased 1% to 843 pence after the advertising firm its public relations arm Burson-Marsteller expanded to Vietnam.