US holiday leaves FTSE treading water

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 15:52

LONDON FTSE 100 CLOSE 5,439.19 +11.04

LONDON'S Footsie remained in positive territory for the seventh straight session yesterday but stocks treaded water as US markets remained shut for their Labour Day holiday.

The FTSE-100 closed up 11.04 points at 5,439.19, with markets across Europe also holding onto gains thanks to Friday's better-than-expected US jobs figures.

Last week's US non-farm payrolls showed 54,000 jobs were lost over August against forecasts for more than 100,000, which sent the Footsie and Dow Jones Industrial Average in America up 1 per cent on Friday.

Gains in Asia put the markets on the front foot again yesterday, although America's Labour Day holiday limited the potential for a further advance in London.

In currency news, the pound fell across the board, slumping to a six-week low against the euro on ongoing fears over the UK recovery.

Sterling fell to just under €1.20 and dropped 0.3 per cent to $1.54 against the dollar.

With Wall Street shut and little in the way of corporate news, market attention was focused on takeover rumours surrounding Cable & Wireless Worldwide.

Reports suggested Singapore's SingTel was lining up a buyout bid and had contacted bankers in Asia and Europe to discuss it. However, shares in the telecoms firm C&WW failed to hold on to the gains as the speculation fizzled out, leaving the group 0.2p lower to close at 72.75p.

Shares in Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group were 5.8p higher at 227.1p after broker Seymour Pierce upgraded the stock from "sell" to "hold".

The retailer, which is due to post a trading update on Thursday, is in danger of relegation from the top flight when the latest reshuffle of the FTSE 100 Index takes place later this week.

Other blue-chip risers included oil giant BP after the US government said the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico had been secured and no longer constituted a threat. Shares were 4.8p higher at 406.5p, a gain of more than 1 per cent.

But drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline was in the red, down 19.5p to 1,249p, as it faced UK regulatory calls to withdraw its under-fire diabetes drug Avandia over ongoing fears surrounding heart risk concerns.

Miners joined Glaxo on the Footsie fallers board, with Kazakhmys down 17p to 1,268p and Eurasian Natural Resources off 9.5p to 875.5p.

Elsewhere, East Kilbride-based five-a-side football group Goals Soccer Centres scored a 5 per cent hike after a 5.5p increase to 121p as it reported an improvement in recent sales thanks to a World Cup bounce.While sales dropped 3 per cent in the first half of 2010, the group has seen a 3 per cent rise since June.

Among other Scottish stocks, hospital billing software firm Craneware jumped 4.8 per cent or 18.76p to end the day at 406.76p after unveiling a record year for sales.

The Livingston-based firm posted a 23 per cent rise in revenue to $28.4 million (18.4m), with pre-tax profit up 24 per cent to $7.3m.

Shares in Aim-listed patent attorney firm Murgitroyd dipped by 2.5p to close at 270p despite full-year pre-tax profits rising by 23 per cent to 3.8m.

The firm said it was hiring again following a "challenging" 12 months.