AFP: FTSE 100 Seen Higher After Gains On Wall Street, Asian Markets Mixed
Overview: yesterday’s volatile session ended with gains for the US stock market, lifted by a strong performance from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), which said its integration with Merrill Lynch was progressing ahead of schedule, and American Express (NYSE: AXP), up 1.6% on the news that billing in October rose 3%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 10,246 to set a new high for this year, the broader S&P 500 index was flat, while the technology heavy Nasdaq composite declined 0.15%.
Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.7%, Japan’s Nikkei was flat as yen strengthened, while China’s Shanghai composite index inched about 0.1% lower.
Oil prices declined slight with December Brent Crude moving down to US$77.31/barrel and US light, sweet crude for December delivery sliding to US$78.86/barrel.
Metal prices continued their climb. Gold hit US$1,108/oz, silver rose to US$17.38/oz, while platinum reached US$1,360/oz.
Base metals recouped some of yesterday’s losses as copper and nickel climbed to US$2.95/lb and US$7.66/lb respectively, while zinc rose to US$0.97/lb.
The FTSE 100 is projected to track gains on Wall Street and add about 30 points, or 0.6% in early trade. The blue chip index snapped its four day winning streak yesterday, inching about 4 points lower as it was dragged down by losses from banking group Barclays (LSE: BARC), gold miner Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS), silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES), copper producers Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) and Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO), which emerged as the leading fallers in the index yesterday. Oil stocks also were in decline with Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) and Petrofac (LSE: PFC) shedding 2.5%.
Banking group HSBC (LSE: HSBA), tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT), utility company Severn Trent (LSE: SVT), medical devices manufacturer Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN) and asset management firm Schroders (LSE: SDRC) ended the day atop the leaderboard with gains of over 2%.
