London shares edged ahead today, regaining only a fraction of yesterday’s harsh falls.
After an hour’s trading, the FTSE 100 Index was up just 10.4 points at 4004.9 – losing early gains and recovering just a small proportion of yesterday’s 229.6-point, or 5.4%, decline.
Yesterday’s bloodbath saw the Footsie plunge below 4,000 for the first time since December 1996 and record its biggest one-day fall since the 11 September attacks.
Markets were badly hit by further plunges on Wall Street yesterday, but despite slumping 440 points at one stage, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to pull back to close just 45 points lower.
The late rally on Wall Street last night meant traders were expecting bounce-back from the FTSE this morning.
Among those posting gains today were telecoms, banking and oil stocks, all of which had been hard hit yesterday.
Vodafone today gained 3%, up 2.5p at 88.5p, mmO2 was up 1.5p at 43.5p and BT gained 5p to 227p.
Banking stocks regaining ground were Barclays, up 3%, or 11p to 432p, Abbey National up 8.5p at 714p, HBOS rising 4p to 567.5p, Royal Bank of Scotland up 27p at £14.77 and Standard Chartered up 12p at 643p.
And oil shares, which contributed heavily to yesterday’s slump, rose. Shell was hurt yesterday by claims by a former Shell executive that transactions it had carried out in its US arm could prove worthless.
Today, the group rallied 3p to 418p, while BP was up 8.5p at 471p.
British Airways, which will be met by three different groups unhappy with its policies at its annual general meeting today at 11am in London, rose 3p to 156p.
Some shares however continued to fall.
Centrica slipped 3%, off 5p to 155.5p, reversing an early rally, despite putting out a statement dismissing concerns about its accounting.
EGi News 16/07/02
