Press Association
Saturday 11th February 2012
The London market has been stuck near to its opening mark, despite a boost for BT and Morrisons in the wake of favourable broker comment.
BT lifted almost 2% - up 1.7p to 125p - and supermarket chain Morrisons rose 1.9p to 296.5p after Citigroup lifted its recommendation on both stocks to buy.
There was little else in the way of top flight action to excite traders, meaning that the FTSE 100 Index drifted 6.8 points lower to 5618.8 and extending the quiet trading pattern seen during last week.
Investors also remained on the sidelines ahead of a new banking bill due to be unveiled in the United States on Tuesday. Financial stocks rose last week on hopes that the bill would fail to get the necessary support from the Senate, although there were signs that many Republicans may back some sort of bill, including giving the US Federal Reserve more regulatory powers.
The pound slipped against the dollar after another round of opinion polls fuelled anxiety over the prospect of a hung parliament.
Royal Bank of Scotland topped the risers board after reports said the part-nationalised firm was among those lined up to work on an initial public offering worth 800 million euros by German chemicals company Brenntag.
On Friday, it emerged that RBS and Lloyds Banking Group were handling a bond issue to raise several hundred million euros for one of the world's largest commodities traders. RBS rose 3%, or 1.3p to 43.9p, but Lloyds was flat at 58.4p and HSBC dipped 0.3p to 683.7p.
Among other top flight movers, BSkyB slipped 4.5p to 593.5p on fading speculation that Rupert Murdoch is planning to take the satellite broadcaster private. The tycoon already owns around 40% of BSkyB. Mining stocks were also under pressure, with Kazakhmys off 26p at 1491p and Xstrata down 29p at 1164p, a fall of 2%.
While Citigroup named Morrisons as its preferred pick of the supermarket sector, it still lifted its price target on Tesco and Sainsbury, causing shares in the pair to improve 0.9p to 436.4p and half a penny to 333.2p respectively.
Outside the top flight, shares in French Connection surged 14%, or 6p to 48p, 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.
