By Dominic Lau
LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 <> index
ticked up by mid-session on Tuesday as gains in Barclays
<BARC.L> and miners eclipsed gloom in heavyweight Vodafone
<VOD.L> and oil shares.
At 1134 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 5.3 points, or 0.1
percent at 5,951.9, well off its day's low of 5,884.8. The UK
benchmark index rose 2.8 percent in the previous session.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top European shares
was weaker by midday, with Swiss bank Credit Suisse <CSGN.VX>
down 8 percent after it said it marked down the value of
asset-backed investments by $2.85 billion, wiping $1 billion
from its net income. []
Barclays <BARC.L> reversed earlier losses, up 1.9 percent,
after Britain's third-biggest bank said it was comfortable with
the level of mark-downs it had taken on risky assets amid
continuing turmoil in credit markets.
The bank raised its 2007 write-down on the value of risky
assets to $3.1 billion, but said profits came in broadly in line
with analysts' expectations. []
"Over the course of the morning, sentiment has shifted from
a type of yo-yo -- it was up yesterday, we should mark things
down and take a bit of profit -- to a kind of continuing
reassessment of how do things look and where do we stand," said
Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index.
"It was a relief in the absence of bad news, although that
relief only came after an initial sell-off."
However, the announcement of further write-downs from Credit
Suisse and Barclays reminded investors that global financial
institutions could still spring more nasty surprises linked to
the meltdown in risky U.S. subprime mortgages.
Within the banking sector, Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>,
Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L>, HBOS <HBOS.L> and HSBC <HSBA.L> advanced
between 0.4 and 2.9 percent.
Heavyweight Vodafone <VOD.L>, however, weighed on the index,
down 1.6 percent after Goldman Sachs cut its price target on the
mobile phone giant. Separately, Qatar said Vodafone was among
eight companies that had expressed an interest in the country's
second fixed-line telephone licence.
Oil major BP <BP.L> dipped 0.4 percent after gaining 2.7
percent in the previous session, while Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> eased 0.6 percent.
TOP LOSER
Cadbury Schweppes <CBRY.L> lost 6.3 percent to top the
losers' list on the FTSE 100 as analysts cited investor
disappointment at the lack of a capital return in the planned
demerger of its North American beverage business.
[]
InterContinental Hotels <IHG.L> advanced 3.1 percent after
the world's largest hotelier met forecasts with an 18.5 percent
rise in annual profit.
Clothing retailer Next <NXT.L> eased 2.2 percent after
Societe Generale downgraded its rating on the stock to "sell"
from "hold".
Centrica <CNA.L> was down 1.8 percent. The British Gas owner
said it was interested in buying a majority stake in Belgium's
Distrigas <DISTy.BR> from French utility Suez <LYOE.PA>.
Miners rose along with metal prices, offering some support
to the British index. BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>,
Anglo American <AAL.L> Antofagasta <ANTO.L> and Kazakhmys
<KAZ.L> added between 1.4 and 1.7 percent.
Pharmaceuticals, a defensive sector battered recently on
concerns of generic competition and drug safety issues, were
back in demand, with Shire <SHP.L> rising 2 percent, AstraZeneca
<AZN.L> up 0.4 percent, and GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> tacking on
0.8 percent.
(Additional reporting by Michael Taylor, editing by Will
Waterman)
