FTSE 100 on the rise despite RBS dive

Monday 2nd November 2009

The FTSE 100 closed 1.02 per cent higher today despite falls at Royal Bank of Scotland.

The index managed to climb 51.70 points to 5,096.25 as miners performed strongly.

Leading the gains was Randgold Resources climbing 5.96 per cent, as metal prices rose and the miner announced it was bringing a new mine into production.

Eurasian was up 5.46 per cent, Vedanta climbed 4.97 per cent, Lonmin rose 4.92 per cent and Kazakhmys gained 4.50 per cent.

Leading the falls was RBS – down 7.80 per cent as tomorrow is expected to see the future of the lender revealed over its participation in the asset protection scheme and any forced sell-offs of assets.

Property stocks also suffered today, with Hammerson down 3.45 per cent, Segro losing 3.12 per cent, Liberty International slipping 2.77 per cent and British Land down 2.41 per cent.

London's gains were cemented by rises in the US.

At 11:51 EST (16:51 GMT) the Dow was up 1.09 per cent to 9.818.38, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.04 per cent to 1,047.00.

In Europe, the Dax was up 0.29 per cent and the Cac 40 rose 0.88 per cent.

Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index, explained markets were helped up by positive US housing and factory data.

"Today's gains are helping to paint the picture that last week's losses may be merely a blip," he said.

"However, we are not out of the woods by any means yet and with rate announcements and possible scaling up of quantitative easing to come from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England this week, along with a crucial Non Farm Payrolls [US employment data] on Friday, there remains a big question mark on the sustainability of today's gains."

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