Rally in London market, FTSE 100 advances |
|
|
Published
:
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:35 |
LONDON: The London stock market witnessed an upsurge with the benchmark U.K. FTSE 100 Index rising by 27.4, or 0.5 percent, to 5228.90. The FTSE All-Share Index too went up by 0.5 percent to 2612.22.
Today marked the first day in trading of the newly listed Royal Dutch Shell B. The stock went up to 1,868 after opening at 1,846. The company came into being after the merger of Shell Transport & Trading Co. with Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., the two holding companies that co-owned Royal Dutch/Shell Group for nearly 100 years.
Some of the stocks that showed remarkable rally were Rio Tinto, the world's No. 3 mining company, which rose 49 pence, or 2.8 per cent, to 1,809 pence, BHP Billiton, the world's biggest miner, 18.5 pence, or 2.5 per cent, to 761.5 pence and GUS, the U.K.'s second-largest retailer by market value, 34.5 pence, or 4 percent, to 888.5 pence. Some 478.8 million shares were sold under 55,141 deals.
Market analysts feel one of the reasons for the rally could be the strong speculation that the Bank of England may indeed reduce the rates in August. The minutes of the July meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the bank, published this morning, showed that the number of dissenting votes doubled to four in July from two in June.
In the U.S., the DJIA rose by 71.57 points to 10,646.46, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 28.31 points to 2,173.18, a new high for the year.
|
|
|
|