London Higher on US Employment Figures

Ivaylo
03 Nov, 2001
New York City

Gains for BSkyB helped outweigh losses for British Airways. Rexam led the decliners after it warned it would take a hefty restructuring charge. Tobacco stocks were in demand helped by reports that Japan Tobacco is considering a potential bid for Gallaher. Falling gold prices left Lonmin, Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Anglo American also in the red. AstraZeneca held firm despite demands from shareholders. In mid-session trade the FTSE 100 was 0.2% higher.

[R]9:30AM The FTSE 100 helds firm Friday buoyed by US employment data.[/R]
In mid-session trade, the FTSE 100 in London was 0.2% higher at 6,164.2, an increase of 15 points.

Advancers

BSkyB gained in view of its first quarter numbers. News of strong demand for its new broadband offering provided upside, as did strong subscriber growth taking its customer base over 8 million.

British Energy continued to recover, as the sharp sell-off following news of problems with the infrastructure of its generators left it looking undervalued. Shares in the company were up 1.8%.

AstraZeneca was stable despite a report that major shareholders are demanding that executives at the pharmaceuticals group spend $4 billion to rebuild its weak pipeline of new drugs with new acquisitions.

Decliners

British Airways fell 0.9% following its interim numbers. The airline stated that the summer security alert at UK airports cost the company around 100 million pounds.

Rexam, the packaging maker, were 3.6% weaker after it warned of a 10 million pounds restructuring charge after lower than forecast orders from the cosmetics sector.

Shares in St Ives fell 2.6% after Tangent Communications said it was no longer interested in bidding for the specialist printer.

[R]7:30AM Asian markets end mostly higher, Australia leads the way.[/R]
Asian markets closed mostly higher on Friday. Japanese market was closed for public holiday. Australia S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.4% to end at 5,432.00, topping a record set in the previous session on strong results from the biggest lender of the nation, National Australia Bank.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong set an intraday record peak of 18,771.01, before settling back to end up 34.01 points, or 0.2%, at 18,749.69, with gains connected with advances in property shares and wireless giant China Mobile. Other indexes around the region also gained. The Kospi in South Korea bounced back from earlier losses to end marginally 0.01% higher.

Taiwan Weighted Price Index advanced 1.2% and Malaysia KLSE Composite Index was up 0.1%. Singapore Straits Times Index traded nearly flat. Indonesia JSX Composite Index reached 1,617.00, before easing slightly to end 0.2% higher at 1,611.50, a record close.

[R]6:30AM European stocks gain modestly in early Friday trading on banks.[/R]
European markets were slightly higher by mid morning on Friday. The FTSE 100 in London was flat at 6,147.4, Frankfurt Xetra Dax added 0.2% to 6,232.71 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged fractionally higher to 5,311.98.

Advancers

Commerzbank led the advancers after it topped forecasts with third-quarter net profit and announced it was on track to deliver one of the best full-year results in its history. Commerzbank shares gained 3.7%.

Allianz gained 1%. The insurance giant said that its third-quarter net income rose 100.4% to 1.6 billion euros ($2 billion) after a gain of 300 million euros from selling one of its units.

Swiss recruitment group Adecco moved 3.4% higher after beating expectations with a 38% rise in third-quarter net profit as its recent merger with Germany DIS paid off and it focused on professional staffing.

Saipem, the Italian oilfield services group, rose 2.9% after Merrill Lynch raised its rating to buy and its price target. Merrill said the recent lacklustre performance of Saipem reflected concerns about its Snamprogetti engineering division.

Decliners

British Airways lost 1.5% after it its second-quarter pretax profit dropped 27% to 176 million pounds, while sales rose 4.9% to 2.3 billion pounds.

Packaging company and can maker Rexam declined 4.2% after it said that, although the majority of its plastic packaging operation continues to trade matching expectations, customer product launches in make-up have not materialized.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for December delivery rose 2 cents to $57.90 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. December Brent crude on London''s ICE Futures Exchange gained 6 cents to $57.93 a barrel.

Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $622.80 a troy ounce, up from $621.00 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro was little changed against the U.S. dollar on Friday ahead of new jobs data from the US economy. The euro bought $1.2773 in morning European trading, only just below its level of $1.2779 in New York late Thursday. The British pound stood at $1.9086, compared with $1.9088 on Thursday. The dollar slipped to 117.04 Japanese yen from 117.12 yen.

[R]5:00AM Gold futures reached fresh high Thursday on weak US dollar.[/R]
Gold for December delivery ended up $8.50 at $627.80 an ounce on the NYME. December silver futures climbed 17.5 cents to end at $12.65 an ounce after rising more than 20 cents in the previous session. January platinum closed up $63.50, or 5.6%, at $1,164.20 an ounce. Palladium saw its December contract also climb $2.65 to close at $326.75 an ounce. And after falling just over 3% on Wednesday, December copper rose 5.05 cents to end at $3.2915 a pound.

Crude oil for December delivery closed down 83 cents at $57.88 a barrel on the NYME. December unleaded gasoline futures closed down 0.99 cent at $1.4531 a gallon. December heating-oil futures fell by 1.18 cents to end at $1.6397 a gallon. Natural-gas futures for December delivery closed up 10.2 cents at $7.814 per million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee futures for December delivery closed 1.9 cents higher at $1.1055 a pound. March futures on raw sugar in foreign ports settled 0.03 cents higher at 11.53 cents a pound.