fund hedge peloton

By Dominic Lau
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s top share index gained early on Friday as gains in energy shares and defensive stock Vodafone eclipsed falls in banks on concerns over the U.S. economy sparked by Federal Reserve comments.
At 0857 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.24 percent at 5,980.2, after losing 1.8 percent on Thursday. The UK benchmark index has advanced 1.6 percent so far this week, but is still down more than 7 percent for the year on concerns over the U.S. economy.
“The market still looks very nervous. The banks are still the key talking point,” said Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“The market is also broadly digesting the comments we had from (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke yesterday. We have seen some ramification of his comments in the continuing weakness of the dollar.”
Bernanke warned on Thursday that the troubled housing sector could cause failures of small banks, dragging U.S. stocks lower. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei average fell 2.3 percent.
Banks were the biggest losers on the FTSE 100, with Barclays , Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Alliance & Leicester
and HSBC losing between 0.3 and 1.9 percent.
London-based hedge fund Peloton Partners LLP became the latest victim of the global credit market turmoil when it told investors on Thursday it was liquidating its $2 billion asset-backed securities fund.
Oil shares, however, offered some support to the market, with crude prices touching a new high above $103 a barrel.
Oil major BP put on 1.3 percent, while gas producer BG Group
gained 2.1 percent and Royal Dutch Shell added 0.3 percent.
Index heavyweight Vodafone rose 0.7 percent after Cazenove lifted its estimate for the mobile phone giant’s 2008/09 operating profit.
Capita slipped 1.4 percent after Britain’s biggest back-office firm said trading conditions were good amid continuing strong demand for services as it met forecasts with a 19 percent rise in underlying 2007 profit.
Yell Group dropped 2.3 percent, extending an 11.2 percent slide on Thursday after U.S. peer R.H. Donnelley lowered its 2008 outlook.
Among others, AstraZeneca rose 1.1 percent after it said it had submitted a once-daily version of its blockbuster Seroquel medicine for approval by U.S. regulators to treat severe depression in adults.
Schroders rose 2.2 percent after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the stock to “equal weight” from “underweight”.

africa.reuters.com


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