London close: Buoyant US lifts FTSE 100
28th Sep 2009 16:37
Footsie put a sluggish start to the day behind it to post strong gains, helped by buoyant showing on Wall Street. There were contrasting fortunes for two stocks dependent on the health of the housing market, with Wolseley on the rise and Home Retail on the slide. Earlier today property research fi
Read moreLondon afternoon: Market cements morning's gains
28th Sep 2009 14:15
London made further headway over the lunchtime session, boosted by expectations of a firm opening on Wall Street. There are contrasting fortunes for two stocks dependent on the health of the housing market, with Wolseley on the rise and Home Retail on the slide. Earlier today property research firm
Read moreLondon close: Shares end up but down from highs
22nd Sep 2009 16:39
London's leading shares finished with slight gains but were well below earlier highs as miners eased back slightly. Eurasian Natural Resources, Lonmin, Xstrata and Vedanta Resources still posted healthy gains, while precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources were also on the climb. R
Read moreLondon afternoon: Shares off the top
22nd Sep 2009 14:07
Shares drifted lower over the lunchtime session but are still up on the day, helped in no small part by the strength of miners, which are rising in line with firmer metals prices. Rio Tinto is wanted after it sold off another chunk of Alcan. The heavily indebted miner sold Alcan Composites, part of
Read moreUpdate: No blacklisting of construction firms
22nd Sep 2009 13:59
More than a hundred of the UK's leading building contractors including Balfour Beatty, Kier and Carillion were landed with fines today by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) after a four-year investigation into collusion and price-fixing in the building industry. The OFT stopped short of putting the
Read moreLondon midday: Rio's assets sale continues
22nd Sep 2009 12:10
Miners continue to lead the market higher as investors return to the market after yesterday's pause for breath. Rio Tinto is wanted after it sold off another chunk of Alcan. The heavily indebted miner sold Alcan Composites, part of the Alcan Engineered Products division, to Swiss firm Schweiter Tec
Read moreLondon open: Bright start for Footsie
22nd Sep 2009 08:46
London's blue chips have made good progress this morning, buoyed by Wall St clawing back some of Monday's early losses in late trading in the US. It is resource stocks that lead the way again. Tullow Oil has recovered from the profit taking of the past two days, while Lonmin and Fresnillo are leadi
Read moreLondon pre-open: Buyers to return
22nd Sep 2009 07:38
Last night's brave effort on Wall Street should help London claw back some of Monday's losses, according to early indications. The FTSE 100 is predicted to rise about 20 points early on after the Dow Jones narrowed its deficit to 41 points, helped by strength among heavyweight tech issues. Over he
Read moreContractors fined £129.5m for price-fixing
22nd Sep 2009 07:06
More than a hundred of the UK's leading building contractors including Balfour Beatty, Kier and Carillion were landed with fines today by the Office of Fair Trading after a four-year investigation into collusion and price-fixing in the building industry. Balfour Beatty was fined £5.2m, Carillion £5
Read moreFTSE 250 movers:
18th Sep 2009 11:25
Shares in Barr, which makes the fizzy drink Irn-Bru, are fizzing after it announced that shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of plans for a 2-for-1 stock split to improve liquidity. Order intake in the May to September period has picked up at bar code printing group Domino Printing Sciences
Read moreFriday tips round-up: Kingfisher, Kier, Unite
18th Sep 2009 06:45
While Kingfisher's shares are not cheap and trade on a forecast 2010 price-to-earnings ratio of 16.3, they have actually fallen back recently from their peak over the past year. Given that trading in the second half is likely to be kinder in the UK and other markets, compared with last autumn, Kin
Read moreLondon close: Blue chips post useful gains
17th Sep 2009 16:42
A better than expected start on Wall Street helped London post more gains by the close. Balfour Beatty was the best performer with the shares roaring ahead on plans to acquire Parsons Brinckerhoff, a US consultancy business. A rights issue to raise about £350m will fund the deal. Ian Tyler, Balfou
Read moreLondon afternoon: Holding onto gains
17th Sep 2009 14:16
London is still in the blue but off its best with futures pointing towards a flat start on Wall Street. British Airways has been the blue-chip stock to own in the third quarter of 2009 with its share price virtually doubling since the beginning of July. The shares get another lift today from Goldma
Read moreFTSE 250 movers: Broker boost lifts Easyjet
17th Sep 2009 12:11
Easyjet is flying high after Morgan Stanley lifted its rating on the budget airline to 'overweight' from 'equal-weight'. It also lifted its target price on the group, to 460p from 340p. Among the fallers is building and civil engineering contractor Kier Group, which reported annual pre-tax profit
Read moreLondon midday: Traders get on board British Airways
17th Sep 2009 12:08
Risers outnumber fallers among FTSE 100 constituents by around three to one as London's strong run continues, despite flat retail sales in August. British Airways has been the blue-chip stock to own in the third quarter of 2009 with its share price virtually doubling since the beginning of July. T
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