US data gives late boost to FTSE

Better-than-expected economic data in the United States provided a late session boost for London’s blue chip share index today.

A surprise jump in consumer confidence helped turn fortunes around on the FTSE 100 Index, which closed 23.7 points up at 5225.2 after spending much of the day deep in the red.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average in the US also made headway, despite having slipped below the 10,000 mark in early trading.

Sentiment improved after the US Conference Board said its consumer confidence index improved to 53.5 in August, up from a revised 51.0 in July and higher than many had forecast.

But economists warned it takes a reading of 90 to indicate a healthy economy and fears over the global recovery have proved hard to budge in recent weeks.

The pressure is likely to remain on world markets as more US economic reports come out this week, culminating in Friday’s closely-watched non-farm payroll figures.

Global recovery worries have been impacting on the Japanese yen, which has soared to 15-year highs – prompting concerns that it could dent the country’s exports.

Japan’s central bank took moves to rein in its currency, but this failed to ease the yen’s strength and sparked a sell-off in Asia overnight.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 3.6%, while market declines were compounded by news yesterday of a smaller than expected rise in US personal spending.

The pound was hit amid today’s recovery concerns, with sterling plunging against most major currencies.

The pound weakened by 0.8% to $1.53 and more than 1% to €1.20.

Among stocks, packaging giant Bunzl made strong gains after it grew first half revenues by 2%, despite headwinds from a difficult market in the UK and Ireland.

The firm’s shares added 9p to 711p.

Miners staged a u-turn having languished in negative territory in early trading, helping push the top tier higher.

Silver miner Fresnillo was the sector’s top riser, up 34p to 1090p.

IT firm Arm Holdings led the way, up 29p to 366.8p – a rise of 9% – as traders cited recent takeover activity elsewhere in the sector and general strength in technology stocks.

Outside the top tier, exploration firm Encore Oil was one of the session’s biggest risers, up 18%, or 11.75p to 78p, after it hailed a “superb” oil discovery off the coast of the Shetland Islands for its jointly-owned Cladhan well in the North Sea.

Elsewhere, self-storage group Safestore lifted after reporting a 9% leap in recent revenues.

The firm said space let in the three months to July was 26% up on last year, helping shares lift 8%, or 9p to 118.25p.

The biggest Footsie risers were Arm Holdings up 29p to 366.8p, Fresnillo ahead 34p to 1090p, Randgold Resources up 155p to 6080p and Royal Bank of Scotland up 1.1p to 44.6p.

The biggest Footsie fallers were InterContinental Hotels down 30p to 982p, Serco off 15p to 582p, BG Group down 17p to 1049.5p and Imperial Tobacco down 29p to 1800p.