Daily Spread Betting and Financial Market Round-up

Financial markets round-up
Friday December 07, 2007

Spread betting opportunities : Financial market update

The equity markets closed out the week on a quiet note, with the major Wall Street equity indices mixed for the day.

At the closing bell on Friday, the Dow managed a marginal gain of 5.69 points (or 0.04%). This however added up to a gain of 253.86 points for the week as a whole.

The Nasdaq Composite index was slightly lower, losing 2.87 points on Friday, to close at 2706.16, up 45.2 or 1.7%. The S&P 500 index gained 1.59% for the week but was down marginally on Friday, falling 0.18% to close at 1504.66

In London, the FTSE 100 index had a strong day on Friday, rallying by over 1% to close at 6554.9—a move of 69.3 points. That close marked the highest for the UK blue chip index since the start of November 2007. The move in London was led by stocks in the retail and mining sectors. House builders also continued to enjoy the positive investor sentiment deriving from the recent cut in interest rates by the Bank of England. For the week, the Footsie was up by 1.9%, 122.4 points.

The winners and losers in London were:

FTSE 100 - winners

Xstrata [+7.91%]
Taylor Wimpey [+7.63%]
Northern Rock [+7.38%]
Wolseley [+6.92%]
Persimmon [+5.80%]

FTSE 100 - losers

ICAP [-2.06%]
SABMiller [-1.73%]
Imperial Tobacco [-1.72%]
Associated British Foods [-1.55%]
London Stock Exchange Group [-1.44%]

FTSE 250 - winners

Berkeley Group Holdings [+9.51%]
Aquarius Platinum [+9.32%]
Dairy Crest Group [+8.70%]
Bovis Homes Group [+7.37%]
Tomkins [+6.59%]

FTSE 250 - losers

EMAP [-9.52%]
Abbot Group [-3.25%]
Ashmore Group [-3.00%]
Tradus [-2.95%]
BlueBay Asset Management [-2.89%]

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