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Air of uncertainty around as Footsie oscillates today

Yesterday’s big fall in the FTSE 100 index induced a degree of nervousness into the UK market this morning, but there were buyers around and by mid-morning the index was up around 25 points.

There was no real theme to the early winners, with Unilever heading the pack after it named Nestle's Paul Polman as CE Patrick Cescau's replacement. BG Group was not far behind, recovering from a three day mauling on a broker upgrade, and in the same sector, BP rose on newspaper reports that it was expected to sign an agreement aimed at preserving its 50% stake in TNK-BP.

In results, there was some reassurance from Whitbread whose shares had fallen recently as it said like-for-like sales across the group had risen 7% in the 24 weeks to 14th August, with total sales increasing 14.2%. The figures were fairly good, but its statement that it remains vigilant in challenging economic times suggests more difficult trading ahead, so we would not chase the price high despite the early rise.

Own label specialist McBride reported a 30% fall in operating profits to £21.4m for the year despite revenue increasing 18% to £700.9m. The group said it had made a satisfactory start to the new year, but was impacted by higher costs of raw materials, and there seems little to go for in the short term here.

Head of Research at Blue Index, specialists in trading
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04/09/2008

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