London midday: Footsie up after Italian auction

28th Dec 2011 13:06

After a subdued start, London's FTSE 100 index jumped higher in morning trade, helped by a strong Italian bond auction. YIELDS PLUNGE AT ITALIAN AUCTIONItaly managed to borrow over €10bn on international debt markets today at interest rates sharply lower than recent times.The yield on €9bn worth of six-month bonds was 3.251%, down from 6.504% last month, while €1.7bn in two-year bills went at 4.853%, significantly lower than the crippling price of 7.814% paid for equivalent debt in November. That Italy is now paying hugely reduced rates suggests the other euro area nations may not be forced to bail out the Eurozone's third largest economy.Meanwhile, Eurozone banks deposited a record €452bn in the European Central Bank's (ECB's) overnight deposit facility on Tuesday, beating the previous record of €412bn broken the day before. The move follows last week's action by 523 banks to borrow €489bn from the ECB's three-year loan facility.One Morgan Stanley analyst, Huw van Steenis, was quoted in the Financial Times as saying: "Despite the massive three year [liquidity take-up], bank concerns on the system remain high given the major sovereign uncertainties."In domestic news, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development revealed that the number of employed people in Britain is likely to decrease by 120,000 next year, with the nation facing the weakest jobs market since the early 1990s.DEFENSIVES UP, EVRAZ DOWNDefensives were in demand at midday in London, with tobacco peddlers British American and Imperial Tobacco on the rise, joined by GlaxoSmithKline. Tesco was a high riser following a key Christmas trading period for the supermarket giant.Steel giant Evraz was the worst performer, after signing a $610m five-year revolving credit facility for its US and Canadian subsidiaries. The funds will be used to re-finance the existing $225m and CAD300m facilities, as well as other capital requirements.Joining Evraz in the red were oil-related stocks Cairn Energy, BP, AMEC and Petrofac, tracking oil prices lower. Brent for February delivery was down 0.82% at $109.27.Other company news was thin on the ground, as per usual post-Christmas. Thomas Cook fell after agreeing to sell a surplus office property to FN2 BV, a company of the Fotex Group, for €18m. "This transaction is part of Thomas Cook's disposal programme announced earlier this year, which has targeted selling up to £200 million of non-core assets over a six to eighteen month period," the firm said. The proceeds of the sale will be put towards reducing the travel operator's borrowings and/or general coporate purposes.AIM-listed oil and gas firm Max Petroleum saw shares fall after the SAGW-2 appraisal well (Blocks A&E Licence area, Kazakhstan) proved not to be commercial. Production testing has begun at SAGW-1 while NUR-1 is on track to reach total depth in April as expected.Consumer finance group MCB Finance jumped after revealing that second-half lending volumes have grown "substantially" in comparison to the first half and the second half the year before. Revenue and net income for the year ending 31 December is expected to be slightly above market expectations.FTSE 100 - RisersITV (ITV) 66.25p +2.79%Tesco (TSCO) 400.45p +2.42%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,147.00p +2.41%Capita Group (CPI) 642.00p +2.39%British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,058.00p +1.98%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,002.00p +1.88%Intertek Group (ITRK) 1,976.00p +1.86%Essar Energy (ESSR) 177.60p +1.83%ARM Holdings (ARM) 589.50p +1.73%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,412.00p +1.69%FTSE 100 - FallersEvraz (EVR) 377.50p -3.80%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 148.80p -1.59%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,432.00p -1.17%Barclays (BARC) 177.10p -1.06%BT Group (BT.A) 190.50p -1.04%GKN (GKN) 182.00p -1.03%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 25.43p -1.01%Xstrata (XTA) 972.30p -0.77%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 20.40p -0.68%Cairn Energy (CNE) 263.20p -0.64%FTSE 250 - RisersBwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 159.80p +22.64%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 545.50p +5.51%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 147.60p +5.32%Cape (CIU) 332.00p +4.63%Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 394.70p +3.62%Home Retail Group (HOME) 85.45p +3.20%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 211.60p +3.17%Halfords Group (HFD) 297.60p +3.08%Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 233.50p +2.77%William Hill (WMH) 193.80p +2.70%FTSE 250 - FallersTalvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 203.30p -4.10%Elementis (ELM) 135.00p -2.88%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 116.80p -2.59%Grainger (GRI) 100.80p -2.33%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 268.90p -2.32%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 456.80p -2.02%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 956.00p -2.00%BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 614.50p -1.99%Diploma (DPLM) 336.00p -1.90%EnQuest (ENQ) 89.00p -1.82%