LONDON, Mar 19: London shares rose to new highs early on Thursday on performance on Wall Street which rallied to a record close overnight, dealers said. The FT-SE 100 index of leading shares rose by 13.9 points to 5,917.5 points in Early trade, slightly off an intra-day high of 5,921.3 seen in initial trading.In Paris, the CAC-40 index opened 2.46 points down at 3,650.06 points.London dealers said that the US market provided the main impetus for trade. A growing number of economists also predicted that the current cycle of interest rate rises here had come to an end, helping further to increase share prices. The British base rate has been raised five times since May to 7.25 per cent.
No change was expected in German interest rates after a meeting of the Bundesbank's monetary policy committee on Thursday.Oil stocks benefited from positive broker comment and predictions that the current low crude price might prompt a wave of consolidation in the sector. Shell oil stock rose by eight pence to 424 pence andshares in Enterprise Oil rose by seven pence to 528 pence.
Meanwhile, Wall Street had little effect in Japan where share prices closed only 0.4 per cent higher. The rally was attributed to late bargain hunting although the market sentiment remained weak. The key Nikkei stock average of 225 leading issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Rose 59.34 points to end at 16,679.02. But the Topix index of all issues on the first section fell 3.52 points to 1,249.57, with an estimated 380 million shares traded against the previous day's 437.4 million shares.
The quick bargain hunting in closing trade came on renewed expectations that the government would disclose details of its next stimulus package soon. Some expect details of the package to be announced on either Friday, or early nextweek. However, overall sentiment was soured by the weak yen.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
