Press Association
Saturday 11th February 2012
Positive broker comments buoyed BT and supermarket chain Morrisons during an otherwise sluggish session for the London market.
BT lifted almost 3% - up 3.1p to 126.4p - after Citigroup upgraded the stock from hold to buy, while the same firm boosted Morrisons by switching from sell to buy and upgrading its price targets on rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's.
With little else in the way of top flight action to excite traders, the FTSE 100 Index drifted 6.8 points lower to 5618.8, extending the quiet trading pattern seen during last week.
Among other top flight movers, BSkyB slipped 10p to 588p as last week's rumours that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is planning to take the satellite broadcaster private started to fade.
Mining stocks were also under pressure, with Kazakhmys off 30p at 1487p and Xstrata down 23p at 1170p.
With Citigroup naming Morrisons as its preferred pick of the supermarket sector, shares in the resurgent Bradford-based chain added 2.2p to 296.8p. Tesco lifted 2.1p to 437.55p and Sainsbury's cheered 1.2p to 333.9p due to the broker's increased price targets.
Outside the top flight, shares in French Connection surged 9%, or 4p to 46p, after it sold its Nicole Farhi brand and refused to rule out a return to private ownership. The company posted losses of £24.9 million for the year to January 31, up from £16.4 million the previous year.
