The stock market got off to a flying start thanks to the performace of bonds.
Most leading shares were marked higher on a day which stands out for its lack of major coroporate or economic news. Within the opening hour, the FTSE moved ahead 18.9 to 4680.7
With less than a week to go to the giant Halifax flotation, banking shares were again soaring away in the expectation that the listing of the UK’s biggest building society will see the shares rocket on the first day’s trading.
A huge scramble by City institutional for any available Halifax shares is expected to drrve the price ahead, Today Abbey National climbed 16p to 948p, Alliance & Leicester jumped 7p to 645p, Barclays firmed 18p to £12.39p and Royal Bank of Scotland was up on 8p to 620p.
EMI Group provided the major focus of attention with its annual results, plans to buy back about 10% of its shares and hefty one-off costs to cover the restructuring of its North American operations.
The results were tempered by a warning that a combination of the strong pound on the foreign exchanges and the subdued conditions in the music industry, progress in the current year was likely to be modest, Its shares were marked down 4p at £12.17p.
PA News 28/05/97
