LONDON (ShareCast) - Utilities stocks Severn Trent and United Utilities were on the rise as investors grew cautious as the US Federal Reserve begins its two-day meeting during which the central bank will debate whether the economy has improved enough to start scaling back its monetary stimulus.

Randgold Resources was also on the up, boosted by a rising gold price.

Meanwhile, shares in Aggreko dropped after Credit Suisse lowered its recommendation on the stock from 'neutral' to 'underperform' and reduced its target price from 2,000p to 1,400p, saying its earnings estimates for next year were 19% lower.

Banking group Lloyds was also in the red after the UK Financial Investments sold a 6% stake in the bank for £3.2bn, reducing its shareholding from about 38.7% to approximately 32.7%. The Treasury sold 4.3bn shares at a price of 75p each. Part-nationalised peer RBS was also lower early on.

Barclays was in the red after it was reported yesterday that it is facing a £50m fine for allegedly breaching market listing rules over its capital raisings. The bank also said that its adjusted income for July and August was lower than in the same period of the previous year, resulting in a 5% year-on-year decline in adjusted income for the eight-month period to August 31st.

Mining group Glencore Xstrata was being weighed down by UBS, which lowered its rating from 'buy' to 'neutral', saying that a "challenging" price outlook will cap share-price performance.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,800.00p +2.39%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 701.50p +2.04%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,571.00p +1.89%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 832.00p +1.59%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,678.00p +1.06%
National Grid (NG.) 753.50p +1.01%
Experian (EXPN) 1,215.00p +1.00%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 217.40p +0.88%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,594.50p +0.73%
Diageo (DGE) 2,026.50p +0.70%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Aggreko (AGK) 1,581.00p -4.12%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 74.69p -3.45%
Barclays (BARC) 296.20p -3.01%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,156.00p -2.28%
Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 334.70p -2.11%
Standard Life (SL.) 347.40p -1.89%
Meggitt (MGGT) 554.50p -1.68%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,084.00p -1.50%
William Hill (WMH) 425.50p -1.32%
Aviva (AV.) 414.80p -1.19%

NR

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE