London’s leading shares index finished the week on a high today after bullish comments from analysts helped lift some of the gloom over the banking sector.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 27.6 points to 5,772.2, with Lloyds Banking Group among the biggest risers after Investec said the business was on the mend. Shares were up 3%, or 0.8p at 30.1p.
An encouraging note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch about European lenders Societe Generale and BNP Paribas provided a further boost to the sector, with Barclays 1.3p higher at 213.6p and Royal Bank of Scotland ahead 0.2p at 24p.
With heavily weighted miners also on the rise, London’s blue chip shares index finished the week more than 100 points or 2% higher.
The retail sector failed to gain a significant boost from strong sales figures – Argos owner Home Retail Group bounced by 4% or 3.9p to 103.4p and Next was up 19p at £30.32, but B&Q owner Kingfisher was down 1.7p at 304p and homewares specialist Dunelm slipped 2.5p to 505p.
Marks & Spencer was on the FTSE 100 risers board despite Investec downgrading its forecast and placing a “sell” rating on the stock. The retailer shrugged off earlier losses to gain 7p at 362.6p.
Meanwhile, fashion chain SuperGroup slid by more than a third as it admitted to “arithmetic errors” in its wholesale business and said full-year profits were now likely to be £43million, compared with City forecasts for £50million. Shares were down 217.7p to 351.8p.
The biggest Footsie risers were Severn Trent up 61p at £17.20, Vedanta Resources ahead 37p at £12.37 and CRH up 34p at £12.46.
Among the biggest Footsie fallers were Arm Holdings down 22.5p at 585p, Weir Group off 52p at £17, ITV down 2.1p at 86p and WPP off 12.5p at 843p.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted Wood Group was up 3.7% to 750p, Stagecoach Group was 3.4% higher to 253p and AMEC added 1.1% to close at £11.29.
Among the fallers, Parkmead Group lost 3.9% to 18.9p and Cairn Energy edged 1.4% lower to 336.5p.