London close: Footsie jumps on euro hopes

15th Sep 2011 16:27

After an already strong start to trading on Thursday on the back of a Franco-German statement on Greece, markets across Europe surged following a European Central Bank (ECB) announcement in mid-afternoon, helping the Footsie in London finish over 2% higher.Early on, investors celebrated last night's statement by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel which said that they were "convinced that the future of Greece is in the Eurozone." The implication is that the European powerhouses will do what is necessary to prevent Greece defaulting on its debts or leaving the Euro area outright. However, the ECB bolstered sentiment after saying that it is to provide extra dollars to Eurozone banks to help secure funds. The ECB said it "has decided, in coordination with the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank, to conduct three US dollar liquidity-providing operations with a maturity of approximately three months covering the end of the year. The euro surged against the dollar as a result: "it offers term USD liquidity to strained European banks and gives some breathing room to the European authorities," said Barclays Capital.The banks were in demand in the UK, with Lloyds, HSBC, Standard Chartered, RBS and Barclays among the top risers. Helping gains, Nomura upgraded the ratings of HSBC and Barclays from neutral to buy, after assessing the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) report and Eurozone risks. Blue chip automotive and aerospace engineer GKN roared ahead as the Frankfurt auto show motored on. Evolution Securities published a note today saying that the stock is cheap and provides a "real opportunity". "Our assessment of the mood out of this week's Frankfurt auto show is one of resilience with growth in global auto production still a sensible planning assumption," said analyst Harry Philips. Iconic British luxury brand Burberry jumped on speculation that it could see a reduction in luxury goods taxes in a key market - China. Chinese newspaper National Business Daily has refuelled the debate, reporting that import duties on luxury items may be cut by the end of the year. However, government ministers still remain divided over whether to adjust their stance, the newspaper said. Retailers were in demand today, with Kingfisher leading the rise. The B&Q owner was buoyant after announcing a 1.6% like-for-like growth in sales in the first half. With Kingfisher's shares having come a long way down since their 52-week high of 287.1p in May, Prime Markets has upgraded the stock from sell to buy, saying that any negativity should now be factored in. Shares in Kesa were higher, despite the Comet owner seeing revenues in the three months to 31 July fall sharply amid weakening economic conditions. Electrical retailing peer Dixons Retail also rose higher.Homeware retailer Dunelm jumped after unveiling robust results for the year to 2 July, with revenue and pre-tax profit both up 9%. Although like-for-like growth was slightly down by 0.6% from a year earlier, revenues rose from £492.8m to £538.5m.Falling gold and silver prices mean that Randgold Resources and Fresnillo were the two worst performers of the day. However, they were bucking the trend, as just eight stocks finished the red on the FTSE 100.Things were looking great for food wholesaler and cash and carry operator Booker after it announced a surge in its like-for-like (LFL) sales in its second quarter, driven by strong demand for fruit and veg.BCFTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.91p +7.19%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,457.00p +6.58%GKN (GKN) 194.70p +6.05%Kingfisher (KGF) 251.10p +4.80%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 96.95p +4.75%Lonmin (LMI) 1,216.00p +4.74%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,647.00p +4.37%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 569.50p +4.30%Next (NXT) 2,588.00p +4.23%IMI (IMI) 834.50p +4.18%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,730.00p -2.96%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,907.00p -1.04%National Grid (NG.) 619.50p -0.88%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,400.00p -0.85%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,004.00p -0.40%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 699.50p -0.36%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,529.00p 0.00%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 293.20p +0.10%Unilever (ULVR) 1,965.00p +0.15%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,275.00p +0.15%