Leading shares ended a difficult week in a slightly calmer fashion.
Hopes that a deal could yet be reached between Greece and its creditors, given a meeting of the Eurogroup and eurozone leaders on Monday, provided some support, as did news the European Central Bank had provided more emergency funding for Greek banks, easing fears of a bank run.
The FTSE 100 finished at 6710.45, up just 2.57 points on the day but down 1.1% on the week. The US Federal Reserve’s hints this week that interest rates might rise this year but perhaps not as quickly as investors had expected also continued to help sentiment.
Hikma was one of the leading risers, up 52p to £19.47 after a positive note from Citigroup on the pharmaceutical group, while Tesco put on 1.35p to 210.85p after reports that Google had teamed up with private equity group Permira to bid for the supermarket group’s Dunnhumby data business.
But mining shares lost ground on renewed concerns about the Chinese economy, not helped by the Shanghai Composite index recording its biggest weekly fall since 2008. Rio Tinto dropped 17.5p to £27.32 and Anglo American lost 4.1p to 986.6p. Glencore dropped 4.8p to 271.55p as it sold a nickel mine, inherited as part of its takeover of Xstrata, to Austalia’s Western Areas for just $19m.
Among the mid caps, Card Factory fell 27.5p to 332p as management and employees sold nearly £50m worth of shares in a placing at 330p each.
Poundland recovered 12.1p to 312.2p after Thursday’s decline in the wake of its cautious outlook, as Morgan Stanley raised its recommendation from underweight to equal weight with a price target of 280p. The bank said:
Poundland’s shares are now down 35% from their peak and while we still have concerns regarding the group’s expansion plan and the structural attractiveness of the single price model in the UK, these are now well understood by investors, in our view.
Colt closed 20% higher at 188p as the telecom company’s founding shareholder Fidelity made a 190p a share bid to take full control of the business, and independent directors said it was not enough.
