Market Wrap, Friday 25th April 2008

The FTSE ended the day up 40.7 poinst at 6,091.4, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 44.6 points at 10,019.

By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down about 83 points at 12,765, the S&P500 down 5 points at 1,384, and the Nasdaq down about 32 points at 2,397.  Most of the bad feeling was due to Microsoft giving a disappointing forecast, but also the news that the consumer sentiment index was down to 62.6 from 69.5 for the previous month, which is the lowest level since the early 1980s. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of US economic activity, so this was a concern for investors.

Back here in London, it was the financials that did best today. News that Merrill Lynch was going to pay its usual dividend brought some cheers. The banks were also up, with Barclays clsing up 12p at 467.25, lloyds TSB up just over 6p at 442.25, HBOS up 8p at 497p, and Alliance & Leicester closed up 21.5p at 514.5.

Staying with financials, the London Stock Exchange (LSE:LSE) closed up 40p to 1,144, whilst ICAP closed up 23.5p at 595.5, and Schroders closed up 35p at 1,055.

With oil nudging US$120 bbl, the stronger dollar helped check it back a little.  This small retreat helped airlines and travel companies with aeroplanes, with British Airways closing up 8.5p at 221.25, and Thomas Cook close up 8.5p at 266p.

Transport firm Go-Ahead was up 207p at 1,657 said its 3rd quarter trading was strong and added that it expects this year to be as expected, and ’significantly’ ahead of last year’s record results. Peers followed up, with FirstGroup closing up 25p at 553, basically on the back of Go-Ahead, and Stagecoach closed up 18.25p at 221.25p.

Carphone Warehouse closed up 8p at 257p after a Morgan Stanley upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal-weight’. The broker said it wasn’t so concerned about cashflow as growth was very good.

Miners didn’t do so well despite metals strong. Anto closoed down 26.5p at 782 on the back of an Evo downgrade to ‘reduce’ from ‘add’, Anglo down 27p to 3,381, and Kazakhmys closed down 27p to 1,664.

Shire pharma was down 42p at 940p after its recent strong run as investors took some profit. 1st quarter results this week had been as expected.

WPP closed down 37.5p at 592.5, off 6% on tha day, after the advertising and marketing group reported weaker than expected 1st quarter growth of 5% and added that revenues were affected by a slower March in Europe.

Mitchells & Butlers was down 3.5p at 309.25 after announcing it is not considered to be in an ‘offer period’ under Takeover Panel rules and added that it is continuing discussions with private equity investors in relation to a possible investment for a stake of up to 29.9 percent (just under the magic 30% rule figure) in the group at a premium to the current share price.

Game Group was nmearly 8p up at just shy of 257p as investors await the full-year results next Tuesday where a 150% increase in pre-tax profit is expected.