FTSE 100 jumps to new highs as Lloyds Banking gains

Friday, 16 October 2009 09:21

The FTSE 100 followed gains last night in New York by pushing to new highs for the year.

At 08:47 BST, the index was at 5,268.59 - rising 45.64 points or 0.87 per cent.

Leading the gains was Lloyds Banking - following an upgrade from Deutsche Bank.

The lender was up 3.89 per cent to 94.97p.

Lloyds Banking also announced the sale of its Halifax estate agency business for £1 today, although most attention is on whether it will extricate itself from the government's toxic asset insurance scheme with a rights issue, and if so whether it will avoid having to sell branches to meet European state aid rules.

BG Group was up 2.99 per cent, Cairn Energy climbed 2.45 per cent and both Whitbread and Tullow Oil were up 2.31 per cent.

Leading the drops was Sainsbury down 2.77 per cent - falling back from double digit gains yesterday over takeover speculation.

Burberry was down 1.39 per cent - also dropping back from recent gains - and Thomas Cook fell 0.85 per cent.

Last night in the US, the Dow was up 0.47 per cent back over 10,000 and the S&P 500 was up 0.42 per cent.

In Europe this morning, the Dax rose 0.84 per cent and the Cac 40 gained 0.50 per cent.

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