Market Wrap, Wednesday 26th March 2008

The FTSE closed down 28.7 points today at 5,660.4, but this was up from its low of the day, which was down about 50 points from yesterday’s close.  The FTSE 250 closed down 38.5 points at 9,756.1.

Over the pond the US opend down as well, with durable goods figures down for Feb. By the time London closed the DJI was down nearly 110 points at 12,423, whilst the S&P500 was down around 11 points at 1,341 and the Nasdaq off 26 points at 2,315.

Back here in London, and carrying ion from this morning, the news that Vale were pulling out of bid talks with Xstrata caused the miner to close down over 5%, or 194p at 3,522.  It appears investors moved into peers, as what with gold and copper on the up again we saw others gain.  Anglo closed up 103p at 2,945, Rio up 65p at 5,050, Kazakhmys up 64p at 1,606, and Lonmin up 76p at 3,101. One faller, and on its FTSE 100 open day too, was Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, closing down 6p at 970p.

Also on its first day with the FTSE 100, or first day back, we should say, was Tate & Lyle, who closed down 29.5p at 553.5p, probably due to its recent run after news was out that it was rejoining the top 100 elite gang.

Some shares were down due going ex-div, with builders supply group Wolseley closing down 23.5p at 527, and insurance giant Aviva closing down a massive 34.5p at 601p on the day.

The Pharmas also suffered, with the two majors down after a Morgan Stanley broker downgrade.  Glaxo closed down 28p at 1,046, whilst peer AstraZeneca closed down 87p at 1,845p.  New targets of £21.50 (down from £24.50) and £11.61 (down from £13.91) respectively.

Market Analyser data feeder Reuters closed down 4.5p at a penny short of 6-quid after its shareholders approved the takeover by Thomson Corp, owner of Thomson Financial News, at the EGM here in London. Trading of the new ‘Thomson Reuters’ group shares will kick off on 17th April.

Sainsbury closed up 21.5p at 358p after the 3rd largest supermarket group reported over a 4% rise in 4th quarter sales. It also added it was entering into a JV with British land.

Vodafone closed up 1.7p at 153.6p on press reports that cash will soon be arriving again by way of divvy from US JV partner Verizon Wireless.  This news helped Cable & Wireless, which climbed 3.1p to 141.9, which also received a broker upgrade from UBS, with a new ‘neutral’ rating, up from ’sell’, but a 140p target (down from 150p) left the shares where they belong in the broker’s eyes.

Oil was up again, with Nymex showing US$104.85 bbl (May del), up over $3.50, Brent (May del) was up to US$103.75 bbl, up $3.15 bbl.  This helped the oil majors, with RD Shell closing up 19p at 1,657, and Tullow Oil up 9p at 657.5p.

Bellway was down 21p at 789p after the housebuilder reported a 3.9% drop in its 1st half pre-tax profits, but did say it was still confident, although added that it expected completions on sales to be down 5-10% for this year end in July. Peer Bovis Homes Group was 32p down at 565.5p after going ex-dividend.

Debenhams was down over 12p to 59.25p, off 17% on the day, as broker Merrills placed 47m shares at 60p-66p.