London close: Stocks weighed down by periphery woes

A positive start to trading on Wall Street helped the Footsie to evade the losses seen in the rest of the Continent as a result of a sharp rise in Portuguese bond yields. Strong gains in the financial sectors, as investors continued to focus on dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, also helped shares to overcome concerns about a slowdown in China."Just as investors were getting to grips with the notion that the Fed will taper QE soon and we will be operating in a world with reduced liquidity, the market reaction clearly suggests that investors still have a crippling addiction to liquidity," said Market Analyst Ishaq Siddiqi from ETX Capital.Given that tapering is dependent on future economic figures, Siddiqi warned that if data continues to improve, "investors cannot rule out that Bernanke will change his tune again and throw out some more taper-talk which will rile up the markets again."Portuguese long-term bond yields rose by 61 basis points to 7.51% as investors began to worry again about the worsening political climate there and after the country's debt agency said it would sell bonds regularly should market conditions be conducive. Limiting upside on markets as well were comments made by Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei who warned that world's second-largest economy would miss its growth target this year. Chinese state agency Xinhua quoted Lou as saying that growth would likely average 7% in 2013, below the government's 7.5% target. China grew 7.7% in the first quarter. FTSE 100: Financials provide a liftFinancials helped to keep the Footsie afloat, with Aberdeen Asset Management, Prudential and Resolution giving the FTSE 100 a boost after some upbeat broker comments.UBS reiterated its 'buy' rating for Aberdeen and added the stock to its 'most preferred' list, saying that the recent share price falls have been overdone. Meanwhile, Prudential was named the top pick in the UK life insurance sector by Nomura due to its "superior growth profile". The same broker upgraded Resolution from 'reduce' to 'neutral'.Banking peers Standard Chartered, RBS and Lloyds were also higher while Barclays to shake off earlier weakness - which ensued after Numis downgraded the stock to 'reduce'.Mining stocks were among the worst performers, pulling back after an impressive rise yesterday as metals prices jumped. Chinese slowdown worries hit the sector, with Fresnillo, Anglo American and Antofagasta registering moderate losses.Experian was lower despite saying it expected strong revenue growth this year after sales outpaced economic expansion in its main markets in the first quarter.Investors also gave a cool reaction to a statement by Centrica as the British Gas owner sealed a cash deal to buy Bounce Energy, a Texas-based electricity retailer with an innovative digital strategy.Reckitt Benckiser did worst, falling by the most in more than two years after US drugstore chain CVS Caremark removed the film version of the company's drug Suboxone from its list of covered medications.FTSE 250: Invensys rockets on takeover proposalEngineering firm Invensys jumped after confirming it had received a cash and paper takeover approach from France's Schneider Electric that valued the company at £3.3bn and said it would likely recommend a formal offer at this price.Phoenix Group also made headlines on M&A activity after reporting that it is in talks with Swiss Re about combining their businesses. The deal would bring Phoenix together with the Swiss insurance giant's Admin Re business and would see Swiss Re take a minority stake in Phoenix. Oxford Instruments, which provides technology for research, rose after saying that orders, sales and profits improved towards the end of the first quarter, following a slow a start to the year.FTSE 100 - RisersResolution Ltd. (RSL) 318.50p +3.41%ARM Holdings (ARM) 897.00p +3.22%ITV (ITV) 157.90p +2.53%GKN (GKN) 334.90p +2.51%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 67.73p +2.23%WPP (WPP) 1,200.00p +2.04%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 382.80p +2.00%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,369.00p +1.63%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 413.90p +1.60%Standard Life (SL.) 384.70p +1.50%FTSE 100 - FallersReckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,677.00p -5.11%Fresnillo (FRES) 981.00p -3.63%Anglo American (AAL) 1,294.50p -3.18%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 858.50p -2.77%Antofagasta (ANTO) 832.50p -2.46%Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 260.45p -2.20%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,101.00p -2.13%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,294.00p -2.04%United Utilities Group (UU.) 706.00p -1.88%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 1,465.00p -1.68%FTSE 250 - RisersInvensys (ISYS) 508.00p +15.43%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 719.00p +10.11%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,370.00p +9.60%Elementis (ELM) 235.90p +5.74%Supergroup (SGP) 896.50p +4.49%Ocado Group (OCDO) 343.00p +3.63%Ted Baker (TED) 1,820.00p +3.41%SIG (SHI) 175.10p +3.12%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 310.00p +2.96%St James's Place (STJ) 597.00p +2.75%FTSE 250 - FallersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 105.00p -5.41%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 150.00p -2.98%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 152.90p -2.61%Polymetal International (POLY) 506.00p -2.50%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 220.70p -2.22%FirstGroup (FGP) 95.75p -2.20%RPS Group (RPS) 215.70p -1.95%Carillion (CLLN) 274.00p -1.79%Evraz (EVR) 92.65p -1.75%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,100.00p -1.73%FTSE TechMARK - RisersPhoenix IT Group (PNX) 172.75p +7.80%E2V Technologies (E2V) 121.75p +2.74%Gresham Computing (GHT) 80.75p +2.70%Emblaze Ltd. (BLZ) 51.75p +2.48%Antisoma (ASM) 1.52p +1.67%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 16.25p +1.56%Skyepharma (SKP) 65.50p +0.77%XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,375.00p +0.73%Sepura (SEPU) 131.00p +0.38%IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 178.62 +0.36%FTSE TechMARK - FallersArk Therapeutics Group (AKT) 0.41p -5.75%Promethean World (PRW) 13.50p -3.57%Microgen (MCGN) 140.50p -3.44%Torotrak (TRK) 26.00p -1.89%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1.48p -1.66%SDL (SDL) 291.00p -0.77%Consort Medical (CSRT) 802.00p -0.50%RM (RM.) 79.25p -0.31%Optos (OPTS) 120.75p -0.21%NCC Group (NCC) 141.50p -0.18%