FTSE in-depth: Traders get post wedding blues

By Rob Davies for the Daily Mail
Updated: 03:47 EDT, 4 May 2011

Those society high-fliers lucky enough to have attended the wedding reception of the future King William and his bride Kate might be feeling a little over-stuffed after a weekend of indulgence.

Slow day: Traders wanted some impetus.

It's at times like these that the conscience begins to prick and some of us regret our excess, vowing to join a gym, cut out the brandies and eat only rice crackers by way of recompense.

Some of the City's analysts were in much the same puritanical mood, deciding they were full up after a feeding frenzy that has fuelled some of the recent risers.

Over at Numis securities, they were feeling somewhat overstuffed with Restaurant Group, the owner of Garfunkel's and Frankie and Benny's. Perhaps the boys in pinstripes are used to rather more upmarket dining establishments, for they declined another helping, trimming 9.2p off the stock, which settled at 325.8p.

Transport firm Stagecoach was in equally bilious form as both Charles Stanley and Arbuthnot securities decided the wheels on the bus had gone round and round quite far enough.

The former moved from 'add' to 'hold', saying that the market was now giving 'proper recognition' to the Us growth prospects of its super-cheap Megabus operation.

Arbuthnot agreed that 'potential future good news is priced in', bringing the stock screeching to an unscheduled stop, down 8.4p at 238.5p.

The FTSE began the day by nearing a 2011 high, but spent the rest of the day flirting with Thursday's close before settling up just under 13 points at 6082.88.

'We need something to give us a bit of new impetus,' wailed one disgruntled trader, who had been hoping for a more cheery return to work after the long weekend. Sadly, impetus was in short supply, with the FTSE's titanic miners suffering the weight of a slowdown in the recent commodities love-in.

Chief faller among the big diggers was Randgold Resources, which suffered from the customary weakness of gold-related stocks when the dollar improves, losing 244p to 4976.5p.

Hochschild Mining, a tiddler by comparison, fell to earth almost as hard, after production at its San Jose mine was halted due to industrial action. Over the pond, where Wall Street was in triumphal mood over the slaying of Osama Bin Laden, the Dow Jones put on 20 points to 12,827.

Some observers put the rise down to an easing of fears of terror, but most said the excitement caused by the demise of the world's most wanted man was largely market neutral.

Back in Blighty, retail stocks took a knock, with the Confederation of British Industry proving the ill wind behind dark clouds gathering over the high street as it warned of more tough times ahead.

Back in 1884, when Marks &; Spencer was naught but a market stall, it boasted 'Don't ask the price, it's a penny'.

Its descendant shed nearly four of them on the CBI's forecast, finishing down 3.60 at 384.4p. Joining it in the doldrums was Argos owner Home Retail Group, down 2.7p to 217.20p. ITV, which counts on the High Street for its much-needed advertising revenues, fell 1.65p to 74.4p as traders switched off.

Here's hoping Next can offer up some smarter news tomorrow, but its 15p slide to 2222.00p doesn't hold much promise.

With market rather skittish about their short-term prospects, defensive stocks such as pharmaceuticals and their natural counterbalance the tobacco industry, were in favour.

Astrazeneca proved a tonic, fizzing 72p higher to 3062.00p, while British American Tobacco wheezed along behind it, puffing up 55.5p to 2666.50p. But despite the Footsie's slight rise, major positives were in dismally short supply, with little in the way of bid rumours to warm the cockles of the City's heart.

Shire - the drugmaker which stopped playing and took its football to Ireland over the UK's mean old tax regime - kept rising. Teva Pharmaceutical, named as a possible suitor earlier this year, is out of the picture having just spent north of £4bn on US firm Cephalon.

But a 'buy' note from Credit Suisse, including a hike in the target price to 2100p, helped it up 28p to close at 1878p.

Man Group, Europe's largest listed hedge fund group, led the blue-chip risers as it launched a $1.5bn fund in Japan, its biggest such initiative since the financial crisis hit.

Coupled with the impending float of commodities behemoth Glencore - due to release its prospectus today - Man offered a ray of light for hopes of a growing appetite for riskier investments, gaining 8.3p to 258p.