Footsie closes at highest level for more than month

THE FTSE 100 Index closed at its highest level for more than a month yesterday after benefiting from a brighter showing on Wall Street.

Traders banished memories of Wednesday's 100-point fall to add nearly 4% to the value of the Footsie, which ended up 156.4 points at 4327.5.

The upturn reflected a strong session in New York, as executives across America complied with a government deadline and certified their financial results.

Most believe the move will help soothe ongoing concerns about more accounting scandals. The positive run continued this afternoon as better-than-expected production data sustained Wall Street and kept the Footsie near its session highs.

In London, a number of blue-chip stocks were sharply ahead as investors rushed to pick up cheap stocks. Banks reversed the previous session’s falls, when the sector suffered after disappointing figures from European firm Credit Suisse and as a number of stocks went ex-dividend.

Lloyds TSB rose 24½p to 567p, HSBC lifted 24½p to 756½p, Abbey National was up 31p at 752p and Alliance & Leicester rose 11½p to 874½p. Standard Chartered gained 31p at 751p after Morgan Stanley raised its earnings per share forecasts for this year and the next.

Insurers were also ahead, with Aviva up 53p at 548p and Friends Provident up 8p at 142p.

And Royal & Sun Alliance put back some of the losses seen in recent days following its disappointing interim results announcement last week.

Shares, which started the month at 148½p, gained 12½p to 107½p - a rise of 13% to head the Footsie risers board.

Oil heavyweights Shell and BP also gave a lift to the market, rising 17½p to 442½p and 23p to 524p respectively, and pulling back from falls yesterday.

Drug stocks GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca were strongly ahead - up 37p at £13.28 and 69p at £23.58.

And telecom shares were regaining some lost ground, with Vodafone up 5¾p at 97½p, mmO2 rising 2¾p at 43¼p and BT up 11¾p at 207½p - an improvement of 6%.

In a quiet session for corporate news, most announcements were restricted to smaller stocks.

Shipping group P&O slid 7%, off 16½p to 219p after warning tough conditions would hit results at its struggling Anglo-Dutch P&O Nedlloyd joint venture this year.

However kitchen equipment firm The Range Cooker Company saw shares boil up a 5% rise, up a penny to 19¼p after another suitor emerged for the firm.

Blackpool-based Range is already in talks with Robin Russell, a entrepreneur leading a management-based takeover approach with Graphite Capital Management, but today revealed the existence of a second suitor.

The talks with Mr Russell have been based on a bid of 20p-per-share, valuing the group at around £31.8 million.

The biggest Footsie risers were Royal & Sun Alliance up 12½p at 107½p, Amvescap ahead 50p at 435p, Schroders NV up 51p at 500p and Sage Group ahead 12½p at 127p.

The biggest fallers were EMI Group down 7¾p at 190½p, BAE Systems off 8½p at 291½p, British Land down 5½p at 512p and Rolls-Royce off 1¼p at 130¾p.