The FTSE 100 index finally closed up again after a bad start to the day, thanks largely to news of Bradford & Bingley's financial report, but the dollar hit a 12-year high against sterling at the same time.
The FTSE 100 index closed up 32.5 points or 0.7% to 4735.7 after B&B reported pretax profits may rise as much as 6% this year thanks to lending, however, the continued weakening of the dollar is likely to hurt profit margins at some point and drag shares prices down. Bradford & Bingley added 10p or 3.6% to 285p as the firm is expected to generate earnings of around £249m this year. GlaxoSmithKline also rose 13p or 1.2% to £11.14 and recovered yesterday’s losses while AstraZeneca gained 32p or 1.6% to £20.77. HBOS, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, climbed 19.5p or 2.7% to 752p and ...
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