Economics / Markets

Financials are thriving in London this morning with a strong mining sector closely following to drive the FTSE 100 51.80 points (0.88%) ahead to 5958.70.

In London, shares made gains after successful results were announced by Tesco, putting the FTSE 100 up 71.1 points (1.22%) to 5,902.7.

In London, markets rose in early trading to wipe out much of yesterday's losses and the FTSE 100 added 55.1 points (0.94%) to 5,886.7.

Global recession fears continued to drag on the markets this afternoon as the FTSE fell 57.7 points, or 0.98%, to 5837.8 and the Dow Jones fell 12.86 points, or 0.1%, to 12312.56.

The FTSE fell 54 points, or 0.92%, to 5841.5 this morning following the Dow Jones' 256.56 point, or 2.04% drop to 12325.42 as global recession fears worsen.

Despite rising above 6,000 this morning, the FTSE100 had a disappointing end to the week closing down 69.60 at 5895.50.

STANDARD & Poor's has gone live with three new benchmark and investable indices designed to provide access to Africa's developing equity markets and measure their performance.

The FTSE is once again over the magic 6,000 mark as stocks including AMEC and ITV drive the index upwards.

The FTSE fell 6.6 points, or 0.11%, to 5977.3 as Alliance & Leicester led losses on news it has raised mortgage rates for the second time this week.

INDUSTRY commentators have been largely supportive of today's decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to cut interest rates by 0.25pc to 5pc, though warn that more action may be required in the months ahead to combat inflation.