- Spanish, Italian yields fall on ECB intervention speculation- Barclays leads banks higher after upgrade- UK retail sales values rise in MarchLondon's FTSE 100 index finished Wednesday's session strongly following a steep fall yesterday, as investors saw opportunity to build positions in two heavyweight sectors that were widely sold-off the day before - mining and banking."So far, this appears to be a normal trading bounce following a sell-off mainly driven by bargain hunting and short covering," said market analyst Colin Cieszynski from CMC Markets.The Footsie lost 2.24% on Tuesday as concerns about the US jobs market and renewed fears about Eurozone peripheral bond yields prompted investors to shy away from risk. Yields on Spanish and Italian 10-year debt soared to near-6% each. While these worries have not abated, borrowing rates eased slightly today on the back of speculation that the European Central Bank (ECB) could restart its bond-buying programme to alleviate the upward pressure on yields. ECB board member Benoit Coeure acknowledged today that market conditions are not justified, saying: "Will the ECB intervene? We have an instrument, the securities markets programme, which hasn't been used recently but it still exists."Just after the close in London today, the Spanish 10-year bond yield had eased by 10.4 basis points (bp) to 5.874%, while the Italian yield had fallen 14.9bp to 5.536%. Nevertheless, analysts at Barclays Capital said that "Spain and Italy are still in the midst of finalising fiscal and structural reforms, and as such the volatility in the European government bonds periphery is not likely to disappear."In domestic news, UK retail sales values increased by 1.3% on a like-for-like basis in March, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). "The unusually warm weather in March brought some welcome sunshine into the lives of non-food retailers. The early signs of summer got people buying clothes and shoes for the new season," said the BRC's Director-General, Stephen Robertson. FTSE 100: Risk-on as banks and miners provide a boostBarclays finished the day near the top of the pile, helped by an upgrade by Investec from hold to buy. The broker recommended investors to tap into a "clear opportunity" following the near-20% sell-off seen since the start of March. Sector peers Lloyds, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland were also making solid gains. Meanwhile, the miners were being helped by US aluminium giant Alcoa which beat expectations in its first-quarter earnings report last night. Antofagasta, Fresnillo, ENRC and Vedanta were in demand. BHP Billiton was in demand after announcing that approval for its $708m share in pre-commitment funding for the Mad Dog Phase 2 project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. However, shareholders of oil and gas giant BP, which is the operator in the project with a 60.5% share, seemed underwhelmed with shares falling slightly by the close.Outsourcing giant G4S was higher after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating from equal weight to overweight and raised its target price from 280p to 325p. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the firm is planning on issuing bonds worth €500m, citing a unnamed source close to the matter.Telecoms titan BT Group was leading the fallers today after a downgrade from JP Morgan Cazenove. FTSE 250: Michael Page dropsRecruitment firm Michael Page International was providing a drag after admitting that "markets continue to be weak and visibility remains limited." Nevertheless, gross profit in the first quarter of 2012 grew by 6.9%, up 7.7% on a constant currency basis. Dunelm was eking out small gains despite seeing like-for-like sales growth ease slightly in its third quarter. Total sales in the three months to March 31st grew by 10.7%. The upbeat retail sales data may have also provided a lift, with sector peer SuperGroup and Home Retail both on the rise.FTSE 100 - RisersHargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 463.70p +3.78%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,110.00p +3.54%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,041.00p +3.48%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,568.00p +3.43%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 386.00p +2.93%Barclays (BARC) 212.10p +2.81%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 30.59p +2.65%G4S (GFS) 280.10p +2.56%Aviva (AV.) 312.60p +2.42%Aggreko (AGK) 2,159.00p +2.27%FTSE 100 - FallersBT Group (BT.A) 213.20p -2.47%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,938.00p -2.37%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 692.00p -0.93%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 649.00p -0.76%Reed Elsevier (REL) 534.00p -0.74%Sage Group (SGE) 289.50p -0.48%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 102.40p -0.39%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,405.00p -0.37%Whitbread (WTB) 1,809.00p -0.33%BP (BP.) 444.25p -0.25%FTSE 250 - RisersBarratt Developments (BDEV) 134.40p +5.25%Supergroup (SGP) 607.00p +5.02%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 477.40p +4.81%Renishaw (RSW) 1,326.00p +4.57%Exillon Energy (EXI) 128.60p +4.55%Fenner (FENR) 424.00p +4.43%Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) 404.10p +4.04%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 138.40p +3.98%Aveva Group (AVV) 1,640.00p +3.86%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 313.10p +3.85%FTSE 250 - FallersMichael Page International (MPI) 437.80p -3.55%Logica (LOG) 82.85p -3.49%Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 54.75p -3.10%Northgate (NTG) 191.80p -2.44%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 47.20p -2.42%CSR (CSR) 210.00p -2.23%AZ Electronic Materials SA (DI) (AZEM) 288.90p -2.00%Elementis (ELM) 184.10p -1.81%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 32.89p -1.76%Inmarsat (ISAT) 425.20p -1.76%BC
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