FTSE 100 muted Friday

The FTSE 100 was down 0.36% today after a few days of gains in the banking and energy sectors, with the FTSE 250 and FTSE all share down 0.21% and 0.33% respectively.

Atlantic Coal and PPA (Pan Pacific Aggregates) were the biggest gainers among the small caps, gaining 13.02% and 19.35%, with some other small energy companies following suit.

Recent gains among banks slowed, but Barclays continued up 1.63% to 311 pence per share (pps) and Lloyds managed a 1.58% gain, bringing it just short of 70pps.

ARM Holdings continues to move forward, not least on speculation that its recent agreement with Microsoft makes it a target for take-over. I pointed out earlier this week that this was a stock to watch, especially for longer-term gains.

NOTES:

I had held RBS stock, bought at 39.5 pence, and took advantage of the higher price yesterday to sell at 7.5% gain – not bad for two weeks. However, with RBS shares now at a 3 month high, it felt safer to cash in now, rather than watch the stock drop to 38-39 again, as has been happening.

While successful bond sales for Portugal and Spain have no doubt calmed immediate jitters, there is still a sovereign debt crisis in Europe that has yet to be addressed. Until it is, I’m expecting banking stocks to remain volatile.

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