FTSE Caught up in Losses

Ivaylo
22 Sep, 2006
New York City

Hanson was among the few FTSE 100 stocks in positive territory on Friday as the London market erased a large chunk of its recent gains. The FTSE 100 shed 46.3 points, or 0.8%, to 5,850.4, tracking a weak close on U.S. markets. Profit takers are out in force after disappointing US economic data yesterday. Only five FTSE constituents are showing gains at present. BP and BG Group managed to buck the weak market trend.

[R]9:30AM London stocks lower, track overnight U.S. declines.[/R]
The FTSE 100 was lower in early afternoon. The benchmark index shed 46.3 points, or 0.8%, to 5,850.4.

Advancers

Hanson rose 0.43%, Centrica gained 0.23%, BG Group advanced and 0.16%, Lonmin moved up 0.16%. BP shares were also supported by an upgrade from heavyweight broker Morgan Stanley. MFI Furniture Group climbed 7.7% after finally completing the disposal of its loss-making retail operations to Merchant Equity Partners.

Decliners

Brewer SABMiller was among the FTSE 100’s biggest decliners. Its shares slid 2.2% unsettled by a weaker rand and industry data that showed declining beer volumes in the US were hitting its Miller brands harder than most. In the same sector, Scottish & Newcastle lost 1.8% as Thursday bid speculation faded.

Food retailer Wm Morrison eased 2.65 due to investors taking profits in the wake of Thursday 7.7% advance, which was triggered by forecast busting half-year figures. Misys lost 2.25 as it emerged that another potential bidder had dropped its interest in the banking and software group.

Other companies which declined included Old Mutual down 2.59%, British Airways sagging 2.07%, Sage Group falling 2.05%, Bradford & Bingley losing 2.01%, Rolls-Royce slipping 1.99%, and Kazakhmys declining 1.88%.

Corporate news

JP Morgan upgraded Wm Morrison to overweight from neutral and raised its price target but downgraded Tesco to neutral from overweight. Transense Technologies has signed a non-exclusive licence agreement with Lear Corporation to integrate Transense''s batteryless tyre pressure monitoring system technology with Lear''s remote keyless entry receiver technology.

Economic news

The number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell in August by 3,900 on the previous month but unemployment continued to advance on the internationally-recognised labour force survey measure, according to official figures.