EUROPEAN markets shook off worries over the inconclusive Italian election result with the help of better news on the American economy.
The FTSE-100 index recouped a large chunk of the losses seen during the previous session to close 55.44 points higher at 6325.88.
While traders warned that fears of more eurozone turmoil due to the latest Italian political crisis had not gone away, there was encouragement in better-than-expected pending new home sales data in the US.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's strong defence of the current asset purchase programme during testimony to Congress has also lifted the Dow Jones industrial average over the last two sessions.
The Wall Street rally came despite the prospect of automatic spending cuts tomorrow, although there are still hopes President Barack Obama will attempt to piece together a package of measures to minimise the effects. The pound, which has endured a volatile week following the downgrade of the AAA credit rating by Moody's, steadied yesterday with sterling flat against the US dollar at 1.51 and marginally lower versus the euro at 1.15.
However, gold prices have benefited from the latest eurozone uncertainty, with the traditional safe haven rebounding from a recent seven-month low to stand at more than $1600 an ounce.
Broadcaster ITV failed to extend recent gains after posting a 17% rise in full-year profits and a special dividend payment worth £156 million.
The shares have risen to a five-year high in recent weeks, but investors took the opportunity to lock in profits, even though chief executive Adam Crozier hailed the ongoing success of the company's five-year turnaround programme. However, as he also poured cold water on recent takeover speculation, the stock slipped 1.2p to 119p.
British Gas owner Centrica declined 1.3p to 347.8p after a 14% rise in full-year operating profits to £2.7 billion met City expectations.
The firm, which drew flak for revealing a £606m profits haul from its residential arm months after hiking customer tariffs, also announced plans to expand its operations in North America.
Glasgow-based pumps and valves group Weir, which serves the oil and gas sector, topped the Footsie risers' board after it reported a 12% lift in pre-tax profits for 2012 and said it expects to build on the record performance with more revenues growth. The shares rose 7%, or 158p, to £23.22.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article