London close: Company updates impress, Euro-crisis rages on

3rd Nov 2011 16:36

The Footsie finished near its highest levels of the day on hopes that the Greek referendum will be cancelled. Nevertheless, it was a busy day for investors with rumours in the Eurozone dominating the swings in the market throughout the session, and the European Central Bank revealing a surprise decision to cut interest rates.SPECULATION RAGES IN THE EUROZONE, WHILE ECB SURPRISESMeanwhile, rumours appeared every few minutes in the press as to the employment status of Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou. Just as many questions were of asked of what had become of his referendum, which was effectively on Greece's membership of the eurozone, whether Papandreou liked to admit it or not. However, Papandreou has admitted that he would be "glad...if we don't go to a referendum", but said that it would only be scrapped if "opposition comes to the table to back the bailout".As if that excitement wasn't enough, ECB new boy Mario Draghi announced that the Central Bank was cutting interest rates by 0.25% to 1.25%. While most had expected a cut next month, virtually no one saw this coming at Draghi's first interest rate decision as ECB President. "We had expected a 50bp rate cut at the next ECB policy meeting, on December 8th, and in our view there is still clearly significant potential for a further 25bp rate cut at that event," said Julian Callow at Barclays Capital.COMPANY UPDATES BROADLY IMPRESSTate & Lyle jumped over 5% higher after reporting stronger-than-expected first half results with adjusted pre-tax profits of £180m.Net written premiums at insurance group RSA rose by 11% from the year before to £6.1bn in the third quarter.Man Group, the FTSE 100 hedge fund manager, rose strongly after revealing a $150m share buy back programme. Investors seemed not to notice that adjusted pre-tax profits fell 14% in the first half. Telecoms titan BT kept its full-year outlook unchanged after a second quarter performance that reinforced its confidence of hitting its targets. Shares were up 3%. However, it was ITV topped the risers after Credit Suisse reiterated its outperform rating on the broadcaster ahead of its third quarter statement due in the next two weeks. The broker said it holds a bullish view on the stock for various reasons, one being that management's turnaround plan is beginning to "bear fruit".In contrast, Unilever and Pearson were among the few fallers of the day after their updates. Consumer goods firm Unilever fell despite seeing an underlying sales growth of 7.8% in the three months to September. While media giant Pearson fell after highlighting that "the world economy is neither simple nor helpful this year", despite seeing revenues rise 6%.Telecoms group Cable & Wireless Communications soared higher on the FTSE 250 after reporting a 24% rise in half-year revenue and signs of "stablisation" in the all-important Caribbean division.BCFTSE 100 - RisersITV (ITV) 65.10p +5.94%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,880.00p +5.44%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 680.50p +5.18%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 168.40p +4.14%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 109.40p +3.89%Aggreko (AGK) 1,764.00p +3.89%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,914.00p +3.74%Sage Group (SGE) 280.00p +3.63%IMI (IMI) 828.50p +3.63%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,276.00p +3.57%FTSE 100 - FallersICAP (IAP) 368.40p -1.58%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 22.80p -1.38%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 28.90p -1.04%Lonmin (LMI) 1,079.00p -0.92%Prudential (PRU) 625.50p -0.48%BG Group (BG.) 1,387.00p -0.36%Old Mutual (OML) 109.40p -0.27%Unilever (ULVR) 2,068.00p -0.19%