Headline shares ended the day with solid gains as investors put a positive spin on news that GDP ticked up 0.2% in the last quarter, with cruise ship operator Carnival (LON:CCL) leading the gainers. At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 58.32 points at 5,723.65 with the FTSE250 ahead 165.93 points at 10,601.54 and the FTSE Smallcaps 38.71 points better at 2,964.64. US stocks were slightly lower in late morning trade, as news that new home sales were up almost 27% in March was offset by worse-than-expected durable goods data. Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3 points at 11,131, the S&P500 lost 2 points at 1,207 and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 9 points at 2,510.
LONDON MARKETS
The UK economy grew by 0.2% in the quarter to March 2010, less than forecast, but at least showing that a recovery is still under way, albeit at a slower rate than anticipated. Banking shares made modest progress, with Royal Bank Of Scotland Group Plc (LON:RBS) the best of them, up 1.95p at 55.8p on being raised to overweight from equal-weight at Barclays (LON:BARC) Capital. Lloyds rose 2p at 68.48p and Barclays (LON:BARC) added 2.6p at 362.3p. Retailers were in demand, with supermarket giant Tesco (LON:TSCO) adding 7.4p at 450.7p and peers Morrisons and Sainsbury gaining 4p at 300.8p and 4.4p at 349.7p, respectively, while Marks & Spencer Group (LON:MKS) ticked up 4.3p at 375.9p.
DIY operators made firm progress, with Kingfisher (LON:KGF) jumping 9.8p at 247.8p and Home Retail Group Plc (LON:HOME) Group 6.8p better at 294.8p. Primark owner AB Foods jumped 16p at 1,036p and fashion house Next (LON:NXT) gained 48p at 2,344p.
Firming precious metals prices gave gold and silver and platinum miners a boost, with Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) the sector leader, up 195p at 5,275p, Fresnillo (LON:FRES) ahead 19p at 835p and Lonmin (LON:LMI) 57p higher at 1,986p. Platinum processor Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) gained 29p at 1,763p.
Carnival (LON:CCL) cruised to the top of the leaderboard, ahead 133.8p at 2,850p, while tour operators were also positive as flight schedules returned to normal. Tui Travel Plc (LON:TT.) eased up 4.7p at 288.4p and Thomas Cook Group Plc (LON:TCG) gained 3.57p at 263.6p. British Airways (LON:BAY) improved 8.7p at 234.2p and…
