11-Feb-2012 - Barclays shares boost fails to lift FTSE

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Gains for Barclays Bank were not enough to lift the FTSE 100 on Friday as concerns over the Greek bail-out remained. Although it had appeared on Thursday that Greece had come to an agreement over the €130bn bail-out with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, eurozone lawmakers said they needed a firm commitment that the country would implement austerity measures. "Though an agreement on fiscal measures has been made in Athens, implementation risk still looms high," said Hans Redeker at Morgan Stanley. The FTSE 100 was down 25 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,870.46, led lower by falling mining stocks as metals prices lost ground on commodity exchanges. Among them Antofagasta shed 2.2 per cent nfl jerseys supply to £13.18, while Anglo American lost 3.2 to £27.69. Ferrexpo, the Ukrainian iron producer, fell 5.9 per cent to 333p after it was downgraded to "hold" from "buy" by Renaissance Capital. Barclays reported an 18 per cent drop in full-year net income to £3bn and added that it might not meet it profitability targets set last year. Although the result fell short of expectations, the shares gained 2.1 per cent to 238.05p as the company raised its target for cost savings, including the capping of executive bonuses. "While there is still some concern over the level of exposure to the peripheral European countries, the Reebok NFL jerseys underlying business performance is improving and the current valuation looks attractive," said analysts at Killik and Co. National Grid fell 1.8 per cent to 628.4p after JPMorgan cut its rating on the UK energy supplier to "neutral" from "overweight". Cable and Wireless Communications slumped 11.5 per cent to 38.54p after cutting its full-year earnings forecasts for its operations in Panama.

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