Investors Regain Confidence
March 31, 2011
The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100 share index rose 17.1 to 3710.5 on provisional volume of 538.5 million shares. The index gained 35.2 on Thursday. The FT-SE 250 index of second-liners gained 24.8 to 4250.0. Shares advanced from the opening, encouraged by an upturn on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Thursday and stronger global bond markets. The FT-SE 100 hit its intraday high shortly before midday, but fell to the session low after Wall Street failed to add to its gains of Thursday. Lloyds Chemists rose 6 pence to 481 pence after the Department of Trade and Industry announced it has rejected both German-based Gehe's and UniChem's bids for Lloyds, unless they each dispose of some of their wholesale pharmaceutical businesses. UniChem has already responded by stating it will look to meet the DTI requirements, while Gehe has said it will assess the situation. UniChem fell 4 pence to 263 pence. Royal Bank of Scotland's shares rose 6 1/2 pence to 491 1/2 pence after announcing it has settled the litigation brought against it by the liquidators of former customer, Wallace Smith Trust Co.. Retailer Burton Group was the biggest gainer on the FT-SE 100 Friday. Its shares rose 4.6% to 151 1/2 pence after it announced sales in the first 19 weeks of fiscal year 2011 increased 8.5%. The merger of Royal Insurance Holdings and Sun Alliance Group into Royal Sun Alliance Group became official Friday. Shares in the company, now on the London Stock Exchange, gained 5 1/2 pence to 370 1/2 pence.
