|
Banks boost London bourse
|
 |
February 16, 1999: 1:43 p.m. ET
FTSE advances for a fifth straight day; Dax claws back
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - London's blue-chip index powered up 85.4 points to a one-month closing high Tuesday as bank stocks set a trailblazing pace amid positive earnings news from Barclays.
Barclays, the No. 2 British bank in terms of assets, rocketed 6.42 percent on the FTSE to close up at 1,692 pence after reporting a 12 percent rise in 1998 pretax profit to 1.92 billion pounds ($3.13 billion). Barclays unveiled plans to cut costs as it aims to boost profit performance in 1999.
The bank also announced a 500 million pound share buyback program for this year, matching an identical buyback in 1998.
Rival financial institutions Lloyds (LLOY) shot up 2.38 percent, while NatWest (NWB) gained more than 7 percent. Overall, the FTSE added 1.4 percent to close at 6,108.6 - a fifth straight daily advance that brought the index within shouting distance of the record intra-day high of 6,195.6 that it set on Jan .8.
After languishing in the red earlier in the day, Germany's electronically traded Xetra Dax clawed its way back to close up 0.13 percent at 4,895.11 amid a late surge in Deutsche Bank (FDBK).
Germany's largest bank ended up 4.68 percent at 48.35 euros after New York City said it would stop trying to thwart a merger between Deutsche Bank and U.S.-based Bankers Trust once final plans are laid for a Holocaust fund to compensate Nazi victims.
On Tuesday, 12 leading German companies said they had established a fund to compensate World War II slave laborers and victims of expropriations under Hitler's Nazi regime. The size of the fund is yet to be determined.
The participating companies include DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen (FVOW), chemical makers Bayer (FBAY) and Hoechst (FHOE), Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank (FDRB).
DaimlerChrysler shares inched up 0.10 euros to 85.30; Volkswagen lost 0.65 euros to 65.15; Bayer shed 0.30 euros to 30.60, while Hoechst gained 0.60 euros to 40.55 and Dresdner Bank finished 3.68 percent higher, at 32.70.
The lackluster session came against a backdrop of last-ditch negotiations between employers and representatives of Germany's largest union, IG Metall, to avert a threatened strike. Unless a compromise is reached by midnight Wednesday, the union will hold a ballot in a key region that could pave the way for a walkout March 1.
Utilities Veba (FVEB) and RWE (FRWE) finished up 1.70 euros and 0.40 euros, respectively, at 52.10 and 38.50 after a report that E-Plus, the cellular phone operator that is majority controlled by Veba and RWE's Otelo joint venture, is in talks with Britain's Orange. Orange denied the report. Its shares (ORA) closed 0.59 percent higher at 850 pence on the FTSE.
Paris shares slipped 0.32 percent to 4,052.32 as investors awaited Wall Street's response to earnings from technology companies, traders told Reuters.
Lagardere (PMMB), the French conglomerate whose Matra defense unit is merging with aerospace group Aérospatiale, added nearly 1 percent after analysts said the link-up offered good value to Lagardere.
Rhône-Poulenc (PRPP) shares slumped nearly 3 percent after a German newspaper reported that Kuwait, the largest single shareholder in Rhône's planned merger partner, Hoechst, was opposed to the tie-up. Hoechst (FHOE) shares rose 0.60 euros in Frankfurt to close at 40.55.
In Zurich, the Swiss Market Index crept up 0.38 percent to 7,015.2, boosted by Wall Street and a firm dollar. Credit Suisse Group advanced 3.75 percent to 228.75 a day after the banking behemoth said it plans to purchase the U.S.-based Warburg Pincus Asset Management for $650 billion.
Novartis slipped 11 francs to 2,531, while Roche rose 355 francs to 18,210.
British television and leisure company Granada Group (GAA) got a boost after announcing plans to create 1,550 new jobs as part of a 70 million pound investment in motorway service expansion. Granada shares climbed half a percentage point to 1,175 pence.
British tobacco firms Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher Group said on Monday they had been granted an adjournment of a smoking-claim case in the United Kingdom, a move that could pave the way for a settlement or an end to litigation.
Shares of Imperial Tobacco (IMT) shot up 6.25 percent, while Gallaher (GLH) gained 5.20 percent to finish at 445.4 pence. British American Tobacco climbed 2.77 percent.
In Vienna, Bank Austria, Austria's largest bank, surged 9.38 percent to 49 euros on a buy recommendation from Goldman Sachs. The surge built on Monday's 9.8 percent gain.
British January retail prices, used to gauge inflationary trends, showed that underlying inflation in Britain held firm at 2.6 percent in January. That's slightly above the Bank of England's 2.5 percent target.
--From staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
