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Market experiences a day of mixed fortunes

by Tony Brown and Simon Watkins, City Staff, PA News
THE stock market was swept up and down yesterday as it was torn between domestic and overseas forces.
Promising figures from Lloyds TSB rallied financial shares, which were joined by the ever active telecoms stocks.
Meanwhile in the US the climax of President Clinton's trial by the senate set Wall Street and other markets on edge.
A forceful rally in London during the morning saw the FTSE-100 Index rise by 144 points by mid morning. But the poor opening on Wall Street infected London and sent shares in to reverse during the afternoon session.
But a late rally on both sides of the Atlantic helped the Footsie recover some of its rises to close up 62.2 at 5950.7.
The banking sector, which led the index's morning charge, was spurred by Lloyds TSB's end of year results showing underlying profits ahead by 14%.
The banks held on to their morning gains despite the afternoon jitters.
Lloyds itself was up 68p to 852½p, a 9% rise. But hot on its heels was Barclays up 96p to £15.16, still basking in the welcome news that it had filled its vacancy for a chief executive.
Meanwhile HSBC gained 62p to £16.63, NatWest Bank rang up a 72p gain to £12.27, Bank of Scotland put on 60½p to 862½ and Standard Chartered was up 11½p to 790p.
The telecoms sector, however, could not cling on to the morning's gains and ended the day in a mixed state.
BT followed up Thursday's strong rise with another firm day, closing the day up 35p to £10.44½. Its rival Cable and Wireless Communications was up 20½p to 764p.
But Colt Telecom confirmed its reputation for volatility, first jumping ahead in the morning only to fall back sharply to end the day, down 61p to £10.72.
Company news elsewhere was led by reports that the ITC had called for the BSkyB and Man United merger to be blocked.
It dented the rise in BSkyB's shares sending the stock down 2½p to 506¼p, and Manchester United fell 2½p to 228p.

Punt down against sterling

THE Bank of Japan (BOJ) cut its overnight call rate by 0.10 percent to 0.15 percent yesterday.
Initially the Japanese Yen fell to a low of 129.90 against the euro however reversed its losses against the US dollar and euro by midday trade yesterday as hopes faded that the rate would curb rising long-term interest rates.
Sterling traded within a tight range yesterday trading marginally stronger at 0.8785 against the punt (GBP/EURO 0.6920). There are a stream of UK economic data due out next week which are expected to do little to dispel expectations of further interest rate cuts in Britain.
The US dollar weakened on yesterday as liquidity was drained out of the market ahead of the US Bank Holiday on Monday.
Having opened at USD1.4271 against the Irish punt the dollar finished down on the day to close at 1.4330 (USD/EURO 1.1287).

© Examiner Publications Ltd, 1999