Markets: Bond bonus builds a head of steam

FINANCIAL stocks helped the London market stage a belated rally after initially ignoring Wednesday’s massive cash injection from the European Central Bank, as bond yields for Spain and Italy dropped below 5 per cent for the first time in several months.

Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets, said: “Financial shares have benefited from the LTRO [the bank’s £450 billion of cheap loans] effect.”

The FTSE 100 index rose 59.74 points or 1 per cent to 5,931.25 yesterday. Barclays and HSBC were among the biggest risers, up 6.2p at 251.2p and 13p at 568.3p respectively, although Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds fell slightly. The part-nationalised pair each shed less than 1 per cent, to 27.75p and 34.78p respectively.

Hedge fund Man Group gained 13 per cent after it said funds under management increased slightly in the first two months of 2012, to $59.5bn (£37.3bn), while it has also seen an improvement in investor sentiment since the end of last year. Shares were up 16.6p at 147.5p.

Other risers included ITV, which rallied for a second successive session after the previous day’s full-year results highlighted progress in the company’s turnaround. Shares were up by a further 2.1p to 88p.

But Weir Group continued to slide, weighed down by its attempted takeover of Australian mining company Ludowici. Shares in the Scottish firm lost a further 76p to 2,030p.

Outside the top flight, shares in Fife-based eye scanner specialist Optos were flat at 215p, despite a strong “buy” note from Collins Stewart. The broker said that after one of Optos’s largest customers, Luxottica, reported a 7 per cent increase in US retail sales, it had a “conservative” target price of 278p on Optos.

NEW YORK: Wall Street rose last night, moving back to 2008 highs, after a jump in bank shares and further upbeat data on the US labour market, though sharp gains in oil prices limited the advance.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 28.23 points, or 0.22 per cent, to close at 12,980.30 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 8.41 points, or 0.62 per cent, to finish at 1,374.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 22.08 points, or 0.74 per cent, to end at 2,988.97.