Market report. Friday at close

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

The FTSE-100 Index soared ahead today breaking through the 6700 barrier on a wave of enthusiasm for technology and telecom stocks and a rocketing performance in the US markets.

Employment figures in the US showed wages rising slower than expected dampening fears of inflation and interest rate rises and sending America's Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 300 points higher by late afternoon in London.

The surge helped the Footsie close up 88.5 points at 6742.2.

Cable television company Telewest lit up the communications sector as it announced a host of major household names had signed up to its interactive television shopping arm.

The news sent Telewest soaring 50 1/2 p to 339 1/4 p - an 17% leap.

Cable & Wireless also gained with a 72 1/2 p climb to 877 1/2 p and TV group Flextech, which is providing channels on the Telewest digital service, soared 267 1/2 p to £13.50.

Technology stocks staged further strong gains after record improvements by their Wall Street opposites.

Misys gained 88 1/2 p to 874 1/2 p and Sema jumped 142 1/2 p to £12.97.

And online auctioneer QXL logged a 187 1/2 p gain to 670p after announcing a strategic deal with leading web portal company Excite.

Utilities group Severn Trent gushed 7 1/2 p up to 739p as investors warmed to its plans to cut 1,100 jobs in an efficiency drive to meet regulatory targets. Earnings figures came in below expectations, however.

Hyder, the Welsh utility group, suffered from an analysts' downgrade, which punished shares 29 1/2 p to 368 1/2 p - a 7% tumble.

Strong third quarter profits boosted catalogue-based electronics distributer Premier Farnell 67 1/2 p to 435p. The 18% gain came as analysts hoped the once troubled company was set for a full recovery.

The British Retail Consortium's monthly shop Index, released first thing today, showed prices still under pressure on the high street and falling to their lowest for two years.

Retail shares felt the squeeze with Bootslosing 36p to 584p, Sainsburydropping 11 3/4 p to 325p and Comet-to-Woolworths group Kingfisher falling 15p to 592p.

Meanwhile, Airtours confirmed it was to appeal against the European Commission's September decision to block its £850 million bid for First Choice Holidays.

First Choice gained 2 1/2 p to 138p and Airtours fell 2 3/4 p to 400 1/4 p.

Engineering group Senior fell sharply after announcing it had uncovered accounting irregularities at its US aerospace division and warned its full year profits would not meet expectations.

Senior slumped 21 1/2 p to 70p - a 24% fall.

Football club Millwall jumped 1/8 p to 1 1/8 p on rumours that TV presenter Chris Evans was pondering a bid.

The Footsie's biggest risers were Telewest Communications up 50 1/2 p to 339 1/4 p, Sage Group up 619p to £54.05, Sema Group up 142 1/2 p to £12.97 1/2 p and Misys up 88 1/2 p to 874 1/2 p.

The fallers were Boots down 36p to 584p, Scottish & Newcastle down 21 1/2 p to 468 1/2 p, GKN down 42p to 947 1/2 p and Invensys down 11 1/2 p to 287 1/2 p.

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