MARKET REPORT: British Land’s capital gain
SHARES in the company behind the City of London’s Cheesegrater skyscraper scaled a six-year high yesterday on hopes it will be boosted by demand for office space in the capital.
British Land, whose property portfolio also includes Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre, climbed 19½p to 732½p on the back of buy support from Goldman Sachs.
The broker said: “British Land is taking full advantage of the current positive London office market. Having added a number of notable development opportunities in the last couple of years, it is well positioned to take advantage of such market conditions.”
Other blue chip commercial property stocks were in demand, including Intu Properties, up 7¾p to 322½p, while Hammerson and Land Securities added 11½p to 613½p and 21p to 1051p.
Recruitment giant Hays rebounded 7½p to 127½p as several brokers including RBC Capital Markets argued the recent shares sell-off was overdone, while defence technology outfit QinetiQ advanced 8½p to 215½p after a solid trading update.
Investors put Middle East and Ukraine concerns to one side and regained their appetite for riskier assets to send the FTSE 100 Index 66.90 points higher to 6795.34.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones industrial average closed 61.81 points up at 17,113.54
Housebuilders were back on stronger foundations following recent weakness, with Persimmon and Barratt Developments gaining 56p to 1302p and 14¼p to 368½p.
The heavyweight mining sector also contributed several of the best top flight performances. Anglo American and Glencore rose 55p to 1600½p and 11¼p to 369½p, while BHP Billiton struck it 41½p richer to 2054½p.
Monday’s relief rally which greeted Tesco’s appointment of a new chief executive proved short-lived as the supermarket topped the blue chip casualty list, down 11¼p to 277¼p. Rivals Sainsbury’s and Wm Morrison were marked down 4½p to 313¾p and 2¼p to 171½p.
Marketing services and data provider UBM dipped 13½p to 641p as Panmure Gordon double downgraded from buy to sell with a 590p target.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones industrial average closed 61.81 points up at 17,113.54.
