Shares News

LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 opened slightly higher on Friday, helped by gains in the oil sector and by Barclays as vague speculation emerged of a bid for the bank. The shares rose 1.2 percent, featuring on the blue-chip leaderboard, as dealers pointed to talk a U.S. group might be interested in bidding for Barclays. No names were mentioned, and Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) declined to comment. The speculation comes a few days after Alliance & Leicester (AL.L: Quote, Profile, ...

Sam Fleming, Daily Mail7 April 2006 IT'S back to intensive care for the battered healthcare software company iSOFT. OTHER STORIES Market report: Friday preview Smaller companies report: Thursday close New on the market Who's mining the Footsie? A-Day 'good for economy, bad for shares' THE EDITOR'S CHOICE TOP ADVICE: How to pick Isas TOP BLOG: Most popular stories TOP WARNING ...

Japan’s stock market fell back a little to profit-taking on Friday morning. The Topix ended the morning down 0.3 per cent to 1,770.41, after reaching a 14-year closing high the previous day. The Nikkei 225 also fell 0.3 per cent to 17,440.22. // Domestically-focused sectors that had performed well on Thursday subsided, with retailers down 0.7 per cent and banking down by a similar amount. Aeon, A ...

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)- -- Markets across Asia traded mixed Friday, with major indexes little changed, although technology firms advanced on the Nasdaq Composite's mild gains in U.S. trading that lifted the index to a five-year closing high. In Tokyo, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average traded basically flat, rising just 0.02% to 17,492.00. The broader Topix index rose 0.84 points to 1,776.51.  ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- The materials sector helped pull Canada's benchmark index to a new record on Thursday as gold pierced $600 an ounce for the first time in 25 years and other precious metals hit multiyear highs. The S&P/TSX Composite Index (:,,) rose 42.9 points, or 0.35%, to close at 12, 342.02. The S&P/TSX 60 Index of blue chips rose 0.34% to 696.48 and the S&P/TSX Vent ...

By Atul Prakash and Zach Howard LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold bullion rose on Thursday to a new 25-year peak within a whisker of $600 an ounce, and silver touched its highest in more than 22 years, as a shaky U.S. dollar and firm oil prices fuelled active buying. Gold has outpaced many assets and risen more than 40 percent in the past 12 months, compared with an 11 percent rise in the Standard and Poor's 500 index , an indicator of U.S. equity performance. Spot gold spiked as high as $596 ...

U.S. stocks ended mixed Thursday amid some nervousness ahead of the upcoming release of the March employment report, with Merck & Co. a notable decliner after a legal setback over its painkiller Vioxx. A rise in long-term interest rates and some concern over the inflationary impact of a surge in commodity prices also weighed on sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) was down 2 ...

Apple Computer Inc.'s stock on Thursday extended sharp gains from the prior session, yet technology stocks paused to close near the unchanged mark. Apple shares continued to ride upbeat sentiment from Wednesday when it unveiled software allowing its newest Mac computers to run the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Apple's stock (AAPL) gained 6%, or $4.03, to close at $71.2 ...

The Asian Development Bank warned on Thursday that a further spread of discriminatory bilateral trade agreements could harm growth prospects for Asia’s emerging economies. // The Manila-based institution, which on Thursday predicted slightly slower growth in developing Asian economies over the next two years, expressed concern over the fast-growing “noodle bowl” of competing bilateral trade agree ...

Japan’s Topix stock index closed at a 14-year high on Thursday, driven by increased confidence that the world’s second largest economy is at last recovering from years in the doldrums. // The news marks another milestone on Japan’s road back to normality after years of deflation or stagnation. Official figures show consumer prices stopped falling at the end of 2005. Paul Sheard at Lehman in Tok ...