FTSE 100 close: Schroders, Aviva, Cadbury up

By Adrian Lowery
Updated: 12:24 EDT, 29 July 2009

The good times resumed for the Footsie this morning and continued into this afternoon after its record-equalling 11-day winning streak was brought to a halt yesterday.

The FTSE 100, peaked today at 4,581.78 but eventually finished the day 18.69 points higher at 4,547.53, after a brief bout of profit-taking.

David Morrisson, market strategist at GFT Global said the market could be in for a period of consolidation as investors begin to scrutinise corporate earnings more closely in the weeks to come.

'I think there is a little bit of nervousness as we've had such a good rally this month and everyone is due a pull back. I think we're heading for a nasty sell-off at some stage. I don't see how we can go on without a pause or a pullback,' he said.

Banks added the most points to the index, with Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland both in the risers column. Lloyds climbed 2.52p to 83.80p, while RBS added 1.50p to 43.50p.

A broker upgrade helped Schroders leap to the top-end of the Footsie chart, with a 4.62% rise. Shares rose 42p to 951p.

›› Is the bull market back?

Meanwhile, Cadbury saw gains after it reported underlying half year pre-tax profits of £262m, up 11% at constant currency rates on a year earlier. Shares rose 10.5p to 575p after the Dairy Milk maker said sweet toothed consumers in the UK had helped it offset difficult conditions elsewhere.

Aviva climbed 11p to 343p after Deutsche Bank raised its rating to 'buy' in a UK insurance sector review.

BAE Systems was up 2.1%, or 6.75p, to 328p, after it won a U.S. contract and ahead of results due on Thursday.

Shares in BG Group lost 29p to 1053p after the gas producer reported a 31% drop in second-quarter net profit and said lower gas demand meant it would not meet its 2009 production target.

BG made a second-quarter net profit of £513m ($842m), down from £747m in the same period last year. The weakness in the world economy is hitting demand for gas even harder than oil and this means BG will not be able to meet its 2009 production target.

Morgan Stanley says in a note that BG has indicated production growth for the full year is expected to be only 6-7%, below the broker's forecast and the consensus estimate.

But the broker says it would use any weakness in the share price as a buying opportunity and maintains its 'overweight' rating on BG Group.

In the FTSE 250, Halfords said sales were boosted by strong demand in cycling, camping and travel equipment. The firm rose 7p to 348p as it reported quarterly like-for-like sales growth of 1.3%.

Low-cost airline easyJet rose 3.69%, after the firm predicted a full-year pretax profit of £20-50m despite the severe industry downturn, while maintaining its fleet growth plans up to 2011.