FTSE gains 0 6 to recover Wednesday s losses

The FTSE 100 rebounded in trading on Thursday, recovering much of Wednesdays’ losses as investors bought into heavyweight financial stocks, after a larger than expected […]


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By :  ,  Financial Analyst

The FTSE 100 rebounded in trading on Thursday, recovering much of Wednesdays’ losses as investors bought into heavyweight financial stocks, after a larger than expected take up of the ECB’s second LTRO yesterday.
As noon approached, the FTSE 100 rallied 37 points or 0.64%, tracking similar gains for the DAX and CAC.

Man Group shares charge higher
Leading the charge higher were shares of Man Group, the worlds largest listed hedge fund, after reporting confidence boosting numbers to shareholders. The firm saw client outflows, a cause for much concern amongst shareholders, slow and assets under management rose to an estimated $59.5bn from $58.54bn at the end of last year as the lift in the markets helped to support the firms activities.
There has been much concern of the durability of investor confidence in Man Group over the past three years considering the pace and scale of net client outflows and so therefore the slowdown seen is helping to restore some degrees of confidence. The fact that they have also upheld their dividend at a time when there was speculation of a deviation from previously announced rates was also supportive to Man Group’s share prices today. Man’s shares rose 7% straight to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board as a result.
ITV’s shares also continued to see a lift after reporting better than expected earnings yesterday, whilst major UK listed banks also gave heavyweight support to the UK Index, with Barclays and Schroder’s also rallying well on good share demand today.
On the down side to trading were shares of Weir Group, whose shares fell 1.8% and continuing a three day sell off. there is no significant news out to trigger today’s continuation of weakness and so we can relate much of the 1.8% fall to investors profit taking and shares hitting resistance, having reached the top end of its upwards trading channel on Friday last week.

Cable and Wireless bidding war potential
Cable and Wireless shares rallied over 16% after Tata Communications announced it was evaluating a possible cash offer for the communications firm. The news helped to lift broader sentiment, as mergers and acquisitions talk typically does, whilst the news that Tata was mulling a bid has helped to boost CWW shares as investors bet on a bidding war, considering Vodafone’s previous admission that it was also evaluating an offer.

 

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