Market Wrap, Monday 31st March 2008

The FTSE had been down about 100 points at one stage today, but at the close it was actually up 9.2 points at 5,702.1, about 13 points off its high.  The FTSE 250 closed up 19.3 points to close at 9,980.6.

Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was up about 44 points at 12,260, the S&P 500 up nearly 4 points at 1,320 and the Nasdaq was up 10 points at 2,271.    Better than expected Purchasing Managers Index numbers as well as details of a US government plan to overhaul the way Wall Street is regulated gave some confidence to the markets.

Back here in London, the mining stocks had a good day as metal prices were up again.  Anto closed up 25.5p at 701 on the back of a broker upgrade to ‘hold’ from ’sell’ as it looks like metals will continue on the up. Kazakhmys was 40p up on the day to closed at 1,599, Rio closed up 66p at 5,233, and BHP closed up 19p at 1,495.

Oil was still above US$105 bbl, mainly due to concerns on goings on in Iraq, so the oil majors were up.  BP closed up 9p at 512p, Cairn Energy up 32p at 2,834 after a double broker confidence vote and target raise, and RD Shell closed up 37p at 1,696 after receiving an upgrade by SG Securities to ‘buy’.

Friends Provident closed up 3.5p at 123.6 after confriming it had rejected US private equity group JC Flowers’ takeover offer saying it was way under value. It was said that JC Flowers bid 175p a share back in January.

After some good news on drug trials with its hypertension product Crestor, AstraZeneca closed up 36p at 1,884 on the day. The pharma giant said it has stopped the Jupiter clinical trial for Crestor early after the independent data monitoring board overseeing the trial said there was “unequivocal evidence” of a reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients treated with the drug.

On to the down side, British Airways closed down nearly 6p at 234.25p after a   Goldman Sachs change of stance from ‘buy’ to ’sell’, and added a price target of 2-quid a share, down from 330p.  The broker blamed earnings for the next two years will be less due to the price of the black stuff, which BA needs at least US$2 bln worth a year, and also this farce at Terminal 5  that could cost anything up to £50m, it is said.  About 500 T5 flights will have been cancelled by the end of the week.

ITV was also down after a downgrade by UBS citing worries on advertising revenue.  The lack of Euro 2008 interest (thank you MacLaren) will affect revenues, for one thing.  UBS gave a target of 60p, down from 70p.  ITV closed down 4.6p at 63.3p.

Vodafone closed down 6.1p at 150.9 after a double-downgrade by Morgan Stanley, who went from ‘overweight’ to ‘underweight’, and gave a 170p target, down 20%, after it reviewed the telecoms sector.

Tesco closed down 11.25p at 379p on news that the supermarket group will mark time for the moment on its US explansion plans.  Standing still for 3 months, in fact, as it gets to grips with the first 59 stores its opened over there.