London Report: FTSE rises as Ukraine-Russia fears subside
THE FTSE 100 yesterday climbed on the back of investor relief that a feared escalation in the Ukraine crisis had failed to materialise.
Tensions spiked on Friday when Ukraine said it had partially destroyed an armoured column that had crossed the border from Russia, triggering a sell-off in global shares. But Moscow made no threat of retaliation, describing the report as a “fantasy”.
The blue-chip index, which rose nearly one per cent on Friday before erasing gains to end flat, yesterday finished 0.8 per cent higher at 6,741.25 points.
Mining firms posted some of the biggest gains, with shares of Anglo American up 1.4 per cent and Glencore rising 1.5 per cent.
Oil companies also rose, even as oil prices declined more than $1 a barrel. Shares of BP advanced 0.7 per cent and Royal Dutch Shell put on one per cent.
Among other big movers, ARM Holdings rose 2.6 per cent to 930.50p as Goldman Sachs added to some recent positive broker comment on the firm which sells blueprints for chip designs and receives royalties on every chip shipped by partners.
The investment bank repeated its “buy” rating on the stock, which it added to its “Conviction List” ahead of what it expected to be a better second half for the company.
Astrazeneca recovered from recent weakness to end 2.66 per cent higher at 4201.50p, but Tesco dipped 0.02 per cent to 247.95p following weekend reports that new chief executive Dave Lewis might cut the supermarket’s dividend.
Royal Mail slipped 0.11 per cent to 435.10p after analysts at Jefferies cut their price target from 420p to 400p and repeated their underperform rating.
Bovis Homes bounced 4.49 per cent to 837.5op after the housebuilder said six-month operating profit jumped 150 per cent to £51.2m. It said it would meet market expectations for the full year and had almost hit its 2014 sales target of 3,650 homes by the half year.
Rentokil Initial rose 1.87 per cent to 125.10p after a positive note from Investec.
An upbeat production report saw Petra Diamonds put on 4.84 per cent to 199.20p. The company said it would mine around 3.2m carats this year, up three per cent on 2013, and was on track to meet its 5m carat target by 2019.
But Egyptian miner Centamin fell 3.31 per cent to 64.30p after last week’s poor results.