ShareCast News

Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds were in demand today as banking stocks across Europe made gains on improving developments in the Eurozone, boosted by comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel which expressed strong support for the 'save the euro at any cost' stance of European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi.

Water group Pennon was rising by the afternoon despte saying that trading at its waste management unit Viridor has been significantly below the high level of the first half of the previous fiscal year with recyclate prices remaining under pressure. ?

Mining stocks have been weighing down the index for much of the session, with Anglo American, ENRC and Rio Tinto registering losses.

Rio Tinto this morning tannounced plans to tap the US bond market with three fixed-rate bond issues due to mature in five, 10 and 30 years, respectively.



FTSE 100 - Risers

Barclays (BARC) 192.55p +3.41%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 34.05p +3.23%

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,375.00p +2.41%

Weir Group (WEIR) 1,779.00p +2.36%

CRH (CRH) 1,144.00p +2.23%

GKN (GKN) 225.60p +2.22%

Kingfisher (KGF) 295.00p +2.11%

Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,069.00p +2.00%

ARM Holdings (ARM) 586.00p +1.82%

Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 281.80p +1.81%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 1,923.50p -2.58%

Smith & Nephew (SN.) 661.50p -1.42%

Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 367.90p -1.21%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,016.00p -1.15%

AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,992.50p -1.09%

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,468.50p -1.08%

Shire Plc (SHP) 1,990.00p -0.90%

British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,316.00p -0.87%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,952.00p -0.66%

Diageo (DGE) 1,689.00p -0.65%

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