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LONDON (Alliance News) - UK indices have managed to hold on to their early gains after the Scottish electorate voted in favour of staying part of the United Kingdom.
At mid-morning Friday, the FTSE 100 is up 0.7% at 6,869.18. The more domestic-oriented FTSE 250 is outperforming, trading up 1.4% at 15,936.39, and the AIM All-Share index is up 0.4% at 761.08.
The full results of the historic referendum are now in and, with a huge 84% turnout, show that the Scottish public voted 55.3% in favour of keeping the Union, while 44.7% voted for a split. That represents a bigger margin in favour of the union than the last polls in the run-up to the vote had predicted, sparking relief in the financial markets.
"The sound you can hear this morning is a giant collective sigh of relief from both Westminster and the City of London. A 'Yes' vote was the great unknown ? no-one knew what would have happened and uncertainty is what the markets despise," says Dennis de Jong, managing director at UFX.com.
Those companies based in, or most exposed to, Scotland are seeing particularly strong gains. Royal Bank of Scotland is the best FTSE 100 performer, up 3.4%, with SSE, up 1.7%, and Lloyds Banking Group up 1.6%.
The Eurozone's current account surplus was largely unchanged from the previous month in July, data from the European Central Bank showed Friday. The current account surplus slightly rose to EUR18.7 billion from EUR18.6 billion in June. Meanwhile, Germany's producer prices fell 0.8% year-over-year in August, the same rate as in July. This was in line with the consensus estimate.
Major European stocks have been trading strongly Friday with the French CAC 40 up 0.6% and the German DAX up 0.9%.
FTSE 350 mining sector index is down 0.6%, the only sector in the FTSE 350 which is down, as commodity prices continue to struggle. Rio Tinto, Randgold Resources, down 1%, down 1.2% and Anglo American, down 0.8% are notable movers in the sector.
Domino Printing Sciences is the biggest gainer in the FTSE 250, with its shares rising 6.9%. The company said trading in the year to date has been ahead of the year before and said it is confident for its full-year prospects, though it once more cautioned on its prospects for 2015.
Sales in the ten months to August 2014 were up 4% year-on-year, Domino Printing said, with underlying growth in its core business up 9%, though the core business took a 5% hit from foreign exchange movements. Sales in Europe were up 9% year-on-year in local currencies, driven by a number of large projects released by Domino's customers as the recession in the region eased. It said this performance has now moderated towards more normal levels.
Still ahead on Friday is US conference board leading indicator for August. The index measures the future trends of the overall economic activity in the country.
Futures show US indices will open higher with the DJIA, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite all indicated to open up 0.4%.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com
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