The London equities markets fell victim to profit-taking on Friday, with the FTSE 100 dropping 0.8 percent to 5,964.6 and the FTSE 250 losing 0.1 percent to 9,850.3. Despite the losses, both indices were up in the first quarter of the year, with the FTSE 100 gaining 6.2 percent, while the FTSE 250 was up a full 12 percent over the three months. Friday’s volume was 3.5 billion shares traded.
Miners have done very well so far in 2006, with Corus adding almost 50 percent and both Xstrata and Kazakhnys up by close to 40 percent.
As far as the daily results, broadcaster ITV dropped 4.6 percent to 119¼p on the news that it had rejected a second bid from a group of venture capitalists. Another loser was Dana Petroleum, which lost 4 percent to £10.08 when it was learned that Merrill Lynch and ABN Amro are placing around 20 percent of the company’s share capital for sale.
Water companies were also down as investors worried that they might be fined for not meeting customer service standards. Severn Trent lost 2.5 percent to £11.17, while Kelda was down 2.2 percent to 788½p and Pennon Group declined by 1.6 percent to £13.41.
The leisure sector saw gains, with Rank Group up 3.4 percent to 225½p amid bid rumors. Stanley Leisure added 2.5 percent to 734p.
In the retail sector, Marks and Spencer gained 0.6 percent to 556½p on the announcement that it had sold its US supermarket unit, Kings Super Market for £35.4 million. In addition, Deutsche Bank raised its target share price to 625p.