London close: Nervy FTSE 100 closes higher

26th Oct 2011 16:47

It was another see-saw day for the FTSE 100 amid continued wrangling over the Eurozone crisis, but the top share index closed higher in line with a broadly higher showing on Wall Street.MARKETS AWAIT CRUCIAL MEETING Today's planned meeting of European Union Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) has been rescheduled to later in the week, according to a European Union (EU) spokesman. In regards to today's summit, the European Banking Authority has identified a capital shortfall of €108bn to recapitalise the region's banks, and while there seems to be a broad consensus on the need to inject this money into the system, officials still remain undecided on two other key issues - how much firepower the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) should have and the level of haircuts on Greek debt. One EU official source told CNBC, "The numbers are not yet finalised ? you have to have all parameters in place and see what is needed and what the leverage factor would be. It needs a lot of technical work to come up with a number." "The leaders will agree on the options tomorrow, but whether it will be an agreement with all details remains to be seen. I think it will be challenging ? it will be very difficult to agree on everything." MINERS ON THE RISE, TOBACCO STOCKS LIGHT UP Worries that the EU summit may fail to live up to expectations spurred demand for supposedly 'safe-haven' commodities such as gold this morning. Gold rose to the highest level in a month reaching $1,720 early on but had come down to the $1,712 level by midday. Silver and copper rose 2.37% and 2.35%, respectively.Silver and gold miner Fresnillo was wanted. Fellow precious metal miner Randgold Resources (gold) was also higher.Imperial Tobacco climbed after cigarette-making peer British American Tobacco announced that organic revenues had risen 7% (constant currency) in the first nine months of the year. Pharmaceuticals behemoth Shire was firmer after Societe Generale upgraded the stock from hold to buy.Smiths Group struggled stock today after going ex-dividend. Following closely behind was high street giant Next after Deutsche Bank downgraded the firm from buy to hold, saying that it expects share price upside to remain muted now until after Christmas. Marks & Spencer fell in sympathy.Cillit Bang and Clearasil maker Reckitt Benckiser was also falling lower after yesterday warning of slower growth in the fourth quarter.Business-to-business publisher and events organiser Informa is on track to meet its full-year expectations and is enjoying organic growth across all of its businesses. The update sent the shares higher.Transport logistics firm Stobart reported a solid set of half year figures as it repositioned its strategy in the face of a prolonged weak economic background. But Investec was unimpressed. The broker highlights the board's "broadly unchanged" outlook, saying that the word 'broadly' leaves some ambiguity. As such, Investec feels its prudent to lower its profit forecasts for the current year, meaning that the target price comes down from 176p to 165p. That helped send Stobart's shares lower.After a valiant struggle to stay afloat amid a backdrop of tough economic conditions and high youth unemployment, nightclub operator Luminar has finally decided to hang up its dancing shoes. Luminar, which only last month said trading had stabilised with its "Fuzzy Logic" student nights seeing an "encouraging" performance during Freshers' Week, said today that its banks Lloyds, RBS and Barclays will not be extending a waiver of certain covenants in Luminar's three year banking facility. FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,654.00p +4.42%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,280.00p +3.21%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,005.00p +2.72%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,880.00p +2.53%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 107.60p +2.28%Meggitt (MGGT) 380.50p +2.12%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,303.00p +2.12%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,176.00p +2.08%Wolseley (WOS) 1,851.00p +1.93%Sage Group (SGE) 282.90p +1.91%FTSE 100 - FallersSmiths Group (SMIN) 928.50p -4.38%Land Securities Group (LAND) 650.00p -2.69%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,260.00p -2.10%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 34.25p -2.07%Next (NXT) 2,557.00p -2.07%Rolls-Royce Group (RR.) 708.50p -2.01%British Land Co (BLND) 489.90p -1.76%Pearson (PSON) 1,154.00p -1.70%G4S (GFS) 236.30p -1.54%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 493.30p -1.54%FTSE 250 - RisersRank Group (RNK) 140.00p +8.53%F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 69.10p +7.97%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 665.00p +5.56%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 551.00p +4.85%Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 741.50p +4.14%Galliford Try (GFRD) 471.50p +4.04%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 458.00p +3.74%Lamprell (LAM) 236.00p +3.55%Informa (INF) 367.80p +3.29%Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 474.00p +3.18%FTSE 250 - FallersCookson Group (CKSN) 467.50p -5.69%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 118.80p -5.64%Bankers Inv Trust (BNKR) 380.90p -3.81%Rentokil Initial (RTO) 69.70p -3.66%Sports Direct International (SPD) 228.30p -3.63%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 39.80p -3.52%Mothercare (MTC) 175.80p -3.41%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 355.00p -3.27%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 54.80p -3.27%Supergroup (SGP) 627.00p -3.09%