TALK of a substantial programme trade carried out just before the close by UBS and weighted on the buy side gave a final flourish to British equities yesterday, pushing the FTSE 100 index back within striking distance of the 3,700 level.
Earlier, the market had made excellent progress on the back of another strong performance by Wall Street overnight, and an equally good showing by the US market at the outset of trading.
Marketmakers said London had also been influenced by some sizeable activity in the futures market and in the underlying stocks ahead of today's expiry of the July index options.
Some big securities houses were said to have been working towards an expiry around the 3,700 mark on the FTSE 100.
The level of business in equities continued to disappoint traders at the 6 p.m. count, turnover fell short of the 600 million level, reaching 592.3 million, split equally between Footsie stocks and the rest. Customer business on Wednesday was £1.58 billion sterling.
Of the big winners and losers in Footsie, Redland, with its interests in Germany, took pole position on the upside, responding to the bright outlook for German interest rates. Oils prospered, with the exception of BP, which lagged behind a buoyant sector. National Power was aggressively bought, with Merrill Lynch said to be giving the stock a big push after putting it on its global buy list.
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