Market Wrap, Friday 23rd May 2008

The FTSE closed down 94.3 points at 6,087.3, which was the session’s low, whilst the FTSE 250 closed down 109.3 points at 10,077.6, also at its low.

Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was about 136 points down at 12,489, whilst the S&P500 was down around 19 points at 1,375, and the Nasdaq down about 31 points at 2,433.

Back here in London, the miners had a poor day as metal prices fell.  There was also some profit taking ahead of the 3-day weekend. Kazakhmys closed down 99p at 1,678,  Rio down 37p at 6,299, Anto down 38.5p at 693-1/2, Anglo down 171p at 3,372, BHP down a quid to 2,010, and Xstrata down 166p at 4,058.

The heavyweight oil stocks did fall back on profit-taking, as the price of the black stuff took a breather after such a strong rise. The price actually hit a record high at more than US$137 bbl yesterday.  BP closed down 16.5p at 630, BG Group down 27p at 1,310, Cairn Energy down 95p at 3,443, and Tullow Oil down 34.5p to 921.5.

FirstGroup closed down 12.5p to 511.5 after Morgan Stanley said it had doen a transport review and issued a note in which it said it was cautious on UK rail. The broker cut its price target for FirstGroup to 650p from 910p but did keep its ‘overweight’ stance. Morgan Stanley also downgraded Go-Ahead to ‘underweight’ from ‘equal-weight’, which fell 45p to 1,525, and cut National Express to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘overweight’, whicg closed 19p lower at 860. Stagecoach, though, was upped to ‘equal-weight’ from ‘underweight’, but the price still fell 5p to 227.25p.

On to banks, where Lloyds TSB closed up nearly 4p at 395p after a Exane BNP Paribas upgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘underperform’, adding a price target of 495p.  Peer RBS closed up 2p top just shy of 247p,

On to insurance, where Aviva ahead 5p at 612, and Friends Provident up 0.9p at 115.1 amid talk Rabobank is set to make an offer for its Lombard division.

Sainsburys shares closed up 1.25p at 346 after an ABN Amro upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’, adding a target of 440p. The broker said the recent 13% fall aftre posting its pre-lim results was too much.  Peer Morrisons was up nearly a penny to just shy of 280p ahead of a trading update due in a week or so. Deutsche Bank reiterated its ‘buy’ stance and 310p target ahead of the quarterly figures.

Cable & Wireless closed up 6.4p to 161.3 after a Investec Securities upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ after it said the telecom firm’s full year results posted yesterday were good. Investec said C&W’s loked strong for this coming year. Other brokers also upped their targets.

Confectioner Cadbury was down 10p to 688 after an ING downgrade to ‘hold’ from ’sell’, citing pure valuation reasons.

Home shopping firm Findel closed down nerly 8p to 240.25p, extending recent falls following unimpressive full year results last week and rumours and chat about some rather large lines of stock on offer.

Discount airline easyJet lost 14p to close just shy of 266p on concerns with the price of fuel. There was also related sector news that AIM-listed business-only carrier Silverjet were temporarily suspended as its financing remained uncertain.