Encouraging economic data buoys market

The FTSE 100 bounced above 5,200 as statistics continued to confirm investors' faith in the global recovery. .

Cherry Reynard | 12-10-09 | E-mail Article

The FTSE 100 rose 48 points to 5,210 after a good early start was supported by a strong opening in the US.

The market was encouraged by different economic reports. An economic report by influential think-tank, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said that interest rates will remain at their current level for another 2 years, and below 2% until 2014. The same survey showed that GDP growth in the UK was likely to average 1.4% for the years 2009-2014, which may not look impressive, but at least suggested some expansion was a possibility.

Elsewhere, the number of new mortgages granted in August was 29% higher than last year, according to the Council of Mortgage lenders. It fell slightly from July, but markets were expecting August to be a quiet month.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the government would cut the country's debt mountain by £16bn by selling government assets and property, including the Tote and the Channel Tunnel. In combination with the announcement of the Tories’ plans to reduce the debt mountain last week, the outlook did not look quite so bleak.

Economically sensitive resource stocks led the FTSE to levels not seen since before the Lehmans crisis. Increasingly traders believe that the rally may not sag before Christmas, but then time off may give investors pause for thought. BP and Shell rose 1.79% and 1.6% respectively, while Tullow Oil and BG Group also gained.

Banking stocks exerted downward pressure after reports that Barclays was preparing to spin off a £4bn portfolio of complex credit assets in an attempt to tidy up its balance sheet. It dipped 1.15% tp 372.65p. Lloyds TSB also dipped on reports in the Sunday papers that it was to launch a £11bn rights issue ‘within weeks’.

It was another bad day for ITV as it another couple of chairman ruled themselves out of the top job. Sir Crispin Davis, former head of publishing group Reed Elsevier, and ex-BMI British Midland chairman Sir Michael Bishop both pulled out. Chief operating officer John Creswell said he would take the chief executive’s job in an interim capacity, but would leave once a permanent replacement had been found. However, the shares didn’t fall as much as they might have done after Goldman Sachs raised them to ‘buy’ from neutral.

Burberry had a good day after a significant upgrade from Deutsche Bank, which raised its target from 440p to 620p. KBC Peel Hunt did the opposite to Punch Taverns, which dipped 4.88% to 115.1p after a downgrade.

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