Miners and Banks Fuel FTSE Gains, Tech Suffers

The FTSE 100 attempted a rebound on Wednesday, fuelled by miners and financials, but tech stocks suffered some bad news

Holly Cook 11 April, 2012 | 6:42PM
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UK shares staged something of a rebound on Wednesday but remained close to three-month lows, with risk assets recouping some of Tuesday's losses, led by miners and financials.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 39 points or 0.7% at 5,635, while the FTSE 250 index added 98 points or 0.9% to settle at 11,234.

Gains among financial stocks were spurred on by a drop in Spanish and Italian government borrowing rates. Today's decrease in yields likely stems from a European Central Bank official reiterating that the central bank still has the ability to purchase government debt from troubled eurozone nations. 

Barclays (BARC) and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY), two of the previous session's main casualties, were among the top blue-chip performers today, 2.8% and 2.7% higher, respectively.

Miners, which also suffered substantial falls on Tuesday, played a large part in the FTSE 100's climb on Wednesday, receiving as they did a fillip from US aluminium giant Alcoa (A), which issued a solid earnings report. Alcoa's first-quarter results, released late Tuesday, offer hope for better-than-expected things to come in corporate profits over the next few weeks.

Antofagsta (ANTO) added 3.5%, Fresnillo (FRES) took on 3.4% and Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) rose 2.2%.

Elsewhere, tech stocks took a drumming following sour sector news. Nokia (NOK1V) shares plummeted to close down 14.5% after the mobile prone manufacturer cautioned that industry headwinds will have a negative impact on its first-quarter earnings. The firm said operating margins in its mobile handset business would decline by 3% following competitive difficulties in emerging markets such as India and China, where devices using Google's (GOOG) Android platform have gained a foothold. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed suit against Apple (AAPL) according to the Wall Street Journal in regard to price collusion with a book publisher over the price of e-books. More details are expected later today. Yesterday, Apple's market cap exceeded $600 billion for the first time, but shares were 0.3% lower at last check. 

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Holly Cook

Holly Cook  is Manager, Morningstar EMEA Websites

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