Manufacturing gains amid the jitters

Peter Ranscombe

TWO of Scotland’s listed companies fought their way into the top ten on the Footsie’s All-share risers’ board yesterday despite a fifth consecutive session of falls for the wider market.

Optos, the Dunfermline-based maker of eye-scanning machines, was the fifth-highest riser – up 5 per cent to 135p – after publishing clinical data on the success of its scanner.

Sausage skin maker Devro was number nine on the risers’ board, up 4.6 per cent to 175p, following upbeat comments from its chairman at the Moodiesburn-based firm’s AGM.

On the wider market, rating agency Moody’s stoked more concerns over Greece’s debt crisis spreading to Portugal, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Britain as politicians in Athens voted through the harsh economic conditions that come with the EU and International Monetary Fund bail-out.

Another volatile session for the FTSE 100 Index saw it shed 80.94 points to 5,260.99.

The decline followed losses for Asian markets with Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding more than 1 per cent in early trading after mixed economic news.

The main focus of the markets however was the Greek drama and fears of the crisis spreading elsewhere in Europe.

The euro was under heavy pressure – falling below $1.27 against the dollar. The pound strengthened above 1.18 against the single currency at one point – and then took a late slump against the dollar to $1.48.

Investors are treating the dollar as a safe haven until the outcome of the General Election and the Greece situation is clearer.

IG Index market strategist Anthony Grech said: “The short-term fortunes of the London index will be dictated by the outcome of the General Election, although failure to see a clear result by [this morning’s] open could easily pave the way for further volatility ahead of the weekend break.”

With all eyes on the financial sector amid the European turmoil, banks were London’s biggest fallers. Barclays lost 21.05p to 301.7p, HSBC fell 24.2p to 628.4p and Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 2.2p to 48.2p ahead of today’s trading update.

Lloyds Banking Group – which faced protests from its shareholders over pay at the bank’s annual meeting in Edinburgh yesterday – saw shares fall 3.5p to 56.6p.

Supermarket Morrisons was among the biggest fallers after posting disappointing sales growth. Analysts said the firm was outperforming the industry but shares still fell 9p to 269.8p.

Fellow grocers Tesco and Sainsbury’s were on the back foot amid caution on growth. The pair lost 7.1p to 419.8p and 7.5p to 325.1p respectively.

Insurer Prudential saw a second day of rises, up 0.5p to 549.5p, despite delays to its record rights issue to fund the purchase of insurance giant AIG’s Asian business.

Meanwhile Rockhopper leapt 153 per cent to 93.5p, after the oil and gas firm said it was “excited” by the results of a test well off the Falkland Islands.

Fellow South Atlantic explorers were also boosted, with Desire Petroleum up 63 per cent at 61.5p, Falkland Oil and Gas 10.3 per cent ahead at 150p and Borders and Southern 18 per cent higher at 54p.