FTSE 100 rises further despite unemployment increase

Wednesday, 16 September 2009 04:55

The FTSE 100 continued to rally today pushing itself over 5,100, despite rising UK unemployment.

The index was pushed forward with gains for commodity stocks as metal prices pushed forward and statements in the US from Ben Bernanke and Mervyn King in the UK that the worst of recession may be over aided traders confidence.

The index closed up 1.63 per cent to 5,124.13 - a rise of 82.00 points.

Tullow Oil in particular benefitted today as it was reported it had stuck oil at an offshore site in Sierra Leone and its share price rose 9.94 per cent.

London Stock Exchange was also up on rumours that Deutsche Boerse may be planning to make a takeover bid.

It rose 6.68 per cent

Next rose on positive sales data - and the prospect of this year's profits matching last year - pushed the share price up 6.95 per cent.

Eurasian gained 6.45 per cent and ICAP rose 6.43 per cent.

Smiths Group was down 2.50 per cent and Balfour Beatty was down 2.08 per cent, while Tesco fell 0.89 per cent.

At 11:51 EDT (16:51 BST) the Dow Jones was up 0.54 per cent to 9,735.55.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: "At the moment it seems that for every investor suffering a moment of doubt about the long-term prospects of this economic recovery, there are another two who are willing to buy into the smallest sign of weakness and keep stock markets on the up.

"Nevertheless, today's jobless data highlighted the extent of the damage that this economic storm has left in its wake, but did not impact strongly on the market. Mervyn King's suggestion that a fully-fledged recovery was still 'highly uncertain' seemed more likely to dampen enthusiasm for equities.

"But with each significant level being broken on the upside, investors' confidence will be growing gradually and those who are still cautious will find the buoyancy increasingly hard to resist."

• Tags:
• news
,
• share prices