Markets: Chinese stimulus hope lifts market

By DOMINIC JEFF
Published on 10/08/2012 01:01

HOPES that resource-hungry China will be the latest country to try and perk up its economy with monetary stimulus helped London’s commodity stocks on Thursday.

It was enough to keep the FTSE-100 in the black for the fifth day running, up 5.6 points at 5,851.5 amid low trading
volumes.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: “With traders around the City glued to their screens watching Team GB steadily accumulate more
medals, the atmosphere in the markets is almost deathly quiet.”

Glencore was among the top gainers, up 6.9p at 344.8p, but gold miner Randgold Resources faded off the risers’ board despite an early boost from improved second-quarter results. It closed 100p higher at 6,290p.

Standard Chartered shares continued to recover following a tough defence against allegations that the bank covered up illegal dealings with Iran.

With Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgrading the stock, Standard rose for the second day in a row, up a further 3.6 per cent, or 47.5p to 1,363p. It is still well below the level seen before it was branded a “rogue institution” by US regulators.

BSkyB shares were 9p higher at 752p after the broadcaster won its appeal against Ofcom’s ruling that it had to offer two of its sports channels to competitors at wholesale prices. The ruling by the Competition
Appeal Tribunal impacted prospective rival BT, which fell 5.4p to 216.3p.

Shares in insurer Aviva slipped 1.5p to 316.7p after it reported a 10 per cent drop in half-year operating profits and warned of more tough conditions to come. However, it kept its half-year dividend in place, which helped to reduce the negative sentiment.

In the FTSE 250, online grocer Ocado was 4 per cent lower at 73p after a downgrade from UBS.

NEW YORK: On Wall Street, stocks slipped despite better-than-expected jobless claims and trade data in the United States and hopes of further stimulus action from China.

Techs were in demand as Cisco Systems enjoyed improved broker ratings, but some traders fear broader gains are weak. In late session, the Dow was down 7.38 points at 13,168.26.