Storm clouds pass as market recovers
The FTSE 100 edged up this morning as the market recovery continued to gain traction.
Following gains in Asia overnight London’s blue chip index opened down but quickly regained its footing.
The gains came ahead of a crucial summit between France and Germany tomorrow to hammer out a solution to the Eurozone debt crisis which has polluted markets across the globe.
Miners and energy companies dominated the table of highest climbers in London, with Essar Energy up 2.8 per cent.
Miners Vedanta and Kazakhmys were also up more than two per cent as figures showing that the Japanese economic was recovering more quickly than expected after its devastating earthquake helped to give commodities a boost.
There were few significant losers in early trading although the banking sector was sluggish before staging a fightback.
HSBC nudged down by 0.5 per cent as did Schroders. But RBS rose more than one per cent while Lloyds was also in positive territory.
On the FTSE 250 outsourcer Mitie jumped more than three per cent after reporting a record order book as well as a revenue jump.
But recruiter Michael Page International warned that the jobs contraction in the UK banking sector is hitting its profits, sending its shares down 14 per cent.
Meanwhile on the global front Tokyo stocks posted their biggest daily gain in nearly two months, while the Hang Seng closed up 3.3 per cent.
Indications were that investors were snapping up bargains while the price of gold – seen as a so-called safe haven – was tailing off as riskier assets became more attractive.
In UK domestic news figures from property website Rightmove showed that asking prices for properties had dipped for the second month in a row, with London hit more than most areas.