Market update - 14 November

The FTSE 100 was up 158.12 points at 4327.33 while the FTSE 250 climbed to 6315.66, up 158.81, at 12.22pm.

Like Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 552.59 points to 8835.25 overnight, London market ahead traded up ahead of this weekend’s G20 meeting on the financial crisis. Short sellers abandoned downside bets as traders and investors anticipated the summit to bear a list of new measures to soothe the markets.

Moving up

Antofagasta was the strongest in the mining sector, gaining 9.89 per cent or 32.5p to 361.25p, while Anglo American advanced to 1360p, up 8.97 per cent or 112p.

Cairn Energy, at fifth place on the Footsie, led the oil issues, gaining 7.72 per cent or 111p to 1548p.

Financials were also strong with insurance group Prudential advancing to 309.25p, up 14.75 per cent or 39.75p, and the London Stock Exchange climbing to 553p, up 6.45 per cent or 33.5p.

Among the banks, Barclays edged up to 161.5p, up 2.41 per cent or 3.8p, despite signs of opposition to its planned fundraising exercise.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is reportedly planning to axe up to 3,000 jobs in the coming weeks, gained 3.42 per cent or 1.8p to 54.4p and HBOS was up 4.44 per cent or 4p at 94p.

On the second tier, DSG International was up 12.99 per cento r 2.5p at 21.75p after the market switched course.

Pali International’s Nick Bubb, who reiterated his “sell” advice for the stock this morning, said he feared more forecast downgrades when the company reports interim results at the end of this month.

“After a £33m loss in the first half, our full year pre-tax profit forecast of just £80m and [earnings per share forecast of 3p] (vs. £213m and 8.1p last year) needs second half like-for-like sales to be no more than 5 per cent down in the UK, but it could easily be worse than that,” he said.

Mr Bubb added: “But…could DSG go bust? In theory net debt of £100m is well within the group’s borrowing limits but much depends on how much confidence the suppliers have in the business and things could quickly unravel after Xmas, even though DSG is such a dominant player in the UK electrical market.”

“In practice, we think DSG will limp along and it still has the option of selling the ‘crown jewels’ (i.e. the Scandinavian business of Elkjop) even though they are looking increasingly tarnished.”

Moving down

There was little activity on the downside with only three stocks in the red on the FTSE 100 – defensives Reckitt Benckiser, down 34p at 2660p, National Grid, down 4p at 720.5p, and British Energy, down 2.5p.at 750.5p.