Market Wrap, Wednesday 28th May 2008

The FTSE closed up 11.1 points at 6,069.6, down about 153 points from its peak, whiclst the FTSE 250 closed up 23.1 points at 10,057.3.

Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was down about a point at 12,547, whilst the S&P500 was down nearly 3 points at 1,383, and the Nasdaq down nearly 6 points at 2,475.4.

Back here in London, with oil now at about US$130 bbl, the airlines were pleased their fuel bills may be dropping just a little.  British Airways closed up 3.5p at 218p, whilst peer easyJet closed up just over 17p at 291.5.

Staying with travel, Carnival, the cruise operator, also saw benefits of cheaper fuel, closing up 52p at 1,892.5p.

Supermarket chain WM Morrison was up nearly 6p at just shy of 291p after a Credit Suisse upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’.

On to insurance, where Friends Provident, received a JP Morgan upgrade which helped a 1.9p rise to 117.75p, with the broker upping it to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’.

Rolls-Royce closed up 11.25p to 411.25 after it said it has formed a JV company with GKN Aerospace to carry out R&D for work with composite materials in aeroplane engines.

As mentioned above, oil was down, so the heavyweights fell too. BP closed down 11p to 605.5, whilst exploration group Tullow Oil closed down 12.5p to 896.5p.

UK nuclear power provider British Energy closed down 12p to 725p after posting year end figures, which certainly didn’t please Merrills, who reierated it’s ’sell’ stance. British Energy’s EBITDA fell to £882m from £1.2 bln, with blam eon lower annual output as well as lower prices charged. There was also no more news on the UK government’s stake in the nuclear group and who, if anyone, may be bidding for it.

In to the high street, with Marks & Sparks closing down nearly 15p at 381p after going ex-div, whilst peer Next closed down 17p to 1,168, and Cobham closd down 3p at just shy of 208p, also both going ex-div.