Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

Shares in IAG got a boost after international trade body the IATA announced that much of August's rise in premium passenger numbers came from the North Atlantic, where British Airways, an airline owned by IAG, dominates. The firm was also boosted by Investec's decision to reiterate its buy recommendation and 190p price target on the stock. IMI, the global engineering group, was similarly given a boost by RBC Capital, which reiterated its outperform rating on the stock, which follows on from several other positive comments from analysts in recent times, such as Jefferies Group and JPMorgan Chase. Sector peer GKN continued to bounce higher from technical support towards 2,000p although its recent price action has been rather complex to say the least, comment analysts at Digital Look. Both Wolseley and CRH were also higher, most likely buoyed by Wednesday's stronger-than-forecast data on US construction starts, which showed a rise to a four-year high. Housing starts rose 15% in September to an annualised rate of 872,000 units, comfortably ahead of market expectations of 770,000. Meanwhile, with Lloyds Banking Group trading at a 12-month higher, Investec has downgraded its rating for the stock from 'hold' to 'sell' and recommends investors to 'seek refuge' in sector peers Barclays and Standard Chartered, both of which are rated 'buys'. Shares in Lloyds are up a whopping 96% from the lows seen in November 2011 and, at 0.75 times tangible net asset value (tNAV), trades at a "healthy premium to both Barclays ('buy') and Royal Bank of Scotland ('hold') despite another loss in 2012e", said analyst Ian Gordon. Sector peers Barclays and RBS were also firmly lower, with investors likely to be anxious following German Chancellor Angela Merkel's refusal to bow to pressure over the speedy formation of a single Euriopean bankking union. "I want to say very clearly, merely agreeing on the legal procedure for banking supervision is not enough," Merkel said to the German parliament, adding that the reformed system needs to be "effective and independent of national banking supervision". As well, Barclays announced that it has set aside a further 700m pounds in provisions against the possible costs associated with compensating customers for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), taking its total provisions for this concept to 2bn pounds.Drinks giant SABMiller was also among the fallers despite seeing good growth in lager volumes shipped across most regions in the first half of its financial year. Weighing on the shares was a ratings downgrade by Shore Capital to 'hold'. Capital Shopping Centres Group fell on reports that Barclays has placed shares in the company, two people familiar with the deal told Bloomberg. FTSE 100 - RisersIMI (IMI) 939.00p +3.02%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 162.30p +2.98%Evraz (EVR) 257.90p +2.10%Wolseley (WOS) 2,744.00p +1.78%Tesco (TSCO) 321.50p +1.64%Aggreko (AGK) 2,314.00p +1.54%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,812.00p +1.51%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,083.00p +1.50%CRH (CRH) 1,164.00p +1.48%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 771.00p +1.45%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,575.00p -2.19%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 733.50p -2.13%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,923.00p -2.09%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 333.30p -1.83%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 41.49p -1.54%SABMiller (SAB) 2,614.00p -1.53%Barclays (BARC) 241.00p -1.39%SSE (SSE) 1,438.00p -1.37%Reed Elsevier (REL) 609.50p -1.30%Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,204.00p -1.28%NR