Footsie has continued its upward surge on the back of a €720bn deal to prop up the euro agreed by ministers at the weekend.The three-year plan includes €60bn (£52bn) from all EU members, €440bn (£381bn) from the 16-nation eurozone and €220bn from the IMF.Footsie has bounded forward by over 5%.As expected the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, which rescheduled its meeting to avoid any clash with last Thursday's general election, kept rates at 0.5% and its quantitative easing programme at £200bn.Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland are all surging as fears of big euro loan defaults recede. Miners are also going well as the apparent stabilisation of the situation bodes well for the global economy.BP, which said oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has cost it $350m to date, is the only faller at present. On the company announcement front, Centrica remains positive about the earnings outlook for 2010 as British Gas has added over 200,000 residential energy accounts so far this year and the upstream UK business maintains production targets. The group said its UK residential energy supply business British Gas had a "very strong" start to the year, with the number of joint energy and services households it serves up 50,000.Mining company Anglo American is to get out of the zinc business, selling its portfolio of zinc assets to Vedanta Resources. Vedanta is paying $1,338m for Anglo American Zinc on an attributable, debt and cash free basis.South African platinum miner Lonmin bounced back into the black at the interim stage on sharply increased revenue. Profit before tax for the six months to 31 March was $77m compared to a loss of $196m a year earlier. Revenue grew to $661m from $436m at the interim stage last year.BG Group has boosted its US shale gas interests with the acquisition of a 50% stake in partner EXCO's acreage in the Appalachian Basin at a total cost of $950m. Water company United Utilities has agreed to sell its Australian business to a consortium led by Mitsubishi Corporation for A$225m. The consideration payable for United Utilities Australia includes A$176m in cash and A$49m in net debt.Tougher competition and higher costs on some newer public sector contracts have hit contractor and support services group Interserve's performance so far in 2010.Moving to the FTSE 250, strong demand pushed up diamond prices during the first quarter of 2010, Gem Diamonds said today. "The better than expected Christmas sales in the US, restocking in the cutting centers and continued strong demand for diamond jewellery in India and China have resulted in strong rough and polished diamond prices," boss Clifford Elphick wrote in a trading update.Funeral home operator Dignity said underlying operating profit in the first quarter of 2010 was flat, while revenue edged higher. Revenue increased by 1.9% in the 13 week period to 26 March 2010 to £53.9m from £52.9m in the corresponding period of 2009.Rockhopper Exploration has found that samples recovered from a test well in waters off the Falkland Islands have all shown to be oil, indicated a good quality reservoir and a mobile crude oil.FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 62.50p +16.76%Barclays (BARC) 331.10p +16.71%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 52.65p +15.71%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,756.00p +11.70%Aviva (AV.) 338.50p +11.57%Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,569.00p +10.92%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,324.00p +10.61%Wolseley (WOS) 1,547.00p +9.64%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 82.75p +9.46%Xstrata (XTA) 1,104.00p +9.42%FTSE 100 - FallersCapital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 364.80p -19.24%Capital & Counties Properties (WI) (CAPC) 122.60p 0.00%BP (BP.) 554.00p +0.02%BAE Systems (BA.) 334.40p +1.24%Randgold Resources (RRS) 5,720.00p +1.51%Tesco (TSCO) 416.15p +1.74%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 1,811.00p +1.74%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 653.00p +1.79%Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,080.00p +2.08%Cobham (COB) 242.30p +2.11%FTSE 250 - RisersFerrexpo (FXPO) 311.80p +13.84%Gem Diamonds (GEMD) 284.00p +12.56%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 398.00p +12.02%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 119.80p +11.44%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 413.40p +9.92%Trinity Mirror (TNI) 138.60p +9.74%JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 252.40p +9.36%Punch Taverns (PUB) 82.15p +9.31%Ecofin Water & Power Opportunities (ECWO) 143.00p +9.16%JPMorgan European Fledgling Inv Trust (JFF) 686.00p +9.15%FTSE 250 - FallersFidessa (FDSA) 1,266.00p -1.09%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 114.00p -0.87%Mcbride (MCB) 189.20p +0.05%Kier Group (KIE) 1,074.00p +0.37%Arriva (ARI) 765.00p +0.39%BH Global GBP Shares (BHGG) 1,132.00p +0.62%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 896.50p +0.62%BSS Group (BTSM) 305.30p +0.76%BH Macro EUR Shares (BHME) € 16.85 +0.90%Genus (GNS) 716.50p +0.92%
Last checked at 
