Daily Spread Betting and Financial Market Round-up

Despite a volatile week that started negatively, overall the US equity indices posted small gains for the last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on Friday with a gain of 66.74 spreadbetting points, enabling the index to record a gain of just over 134 points for the week. The S&P 500 index also moved higher on Friday, finishing at 1458.74, up 7.59. The Nasdaq Composite index was up 18.73 points on Friday, closing at 2637.24.

In London, the FTSE 100 ended the day decidedly in the red as the banking sector once again weighed heavily on the index. The usual suspects, Northern Rock, Barlcays, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Alliance & Leicester were all in the dock. By the close, the Footsie was down 68.4 spreadbetting points for a loss of 1.08%.

Elsewhere, the techMARK index lost 0.79% and the FTSE 250 was down 1.24% for the Friday session.

Those who spread bet on individual shares would note the main movers below:

FTSE 100 – Winners
Vedanta Resources (VED) 2,060.00p +3.88%
3i Group (III) 1,044.00p +2.45%
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) 1,625.00p +2.20%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 413.50p +2.04%
Centrica (CNA) 356.00p +2.01%
FTSE 100 – Losers
Alliance & Leicester (AL.) 607.00p -6.33%
Kingfisher (KGF) 173.60p -5.19%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 426.50p -4.91%
Compass Group (CPG) 287.50p -4.56%
Friends Provident (FP.) 156.50p -4.34%
FTSE 250 – Winners
Beazley Group (BEZ) 155.25p +6.70%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 512.50p +5.18%
Venture Production (VPC) 772.00p +4.47%
Candover Investments (CDI) 2,102.00p +3.34%
Premier Foods (PFD) 204.50p +3.28%
FTSE 250 – Losers
Invista Foundation Property Trust (IFD) 80.25p -8.55%
BSS Group (BTSM) 408.00p -7.69%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 134.75p -7.07%
UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCM) 67.50p -5.92%
Minerva (MNR) 168.75p -5.73%

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