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United Kingdom

February 2010

  • Equities all but recover their January losses.
  • The banking sector gains strongly.
  • UK economic growth is revised upward.

UK equities advanced steadily during February, as fears eased over Greece’s sovereign debt and figures from China suggested its trade with the rest of the world was stabilising. Favourable corporate results from companies on both sides of the Atlantic further boosted sentiment. The major UK banks were among the biggest winners. Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays did especially well in the wake of better-than-expected results. The mining sector also continued its strong showing – Xstrata announced it would be resuming dividend payments and said the medium-term outlook for commodities demand was “very promising”. Overall, the FTSE All-Share index rose 3.4% during the month, all but returning markets to where they were at the start of the year.

Economic news was headed by an upward revision to the country’s GDP figures for the final quarter of 2009 – from 0.1% to 0.3%. Not all was positive though, with business investment in the period estimated to have fallen 5.8% from the previous quarter. Interest rates were left unchanged by the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, and there was no increase to the £200 billion of quantitative easing. While most economists believe there will be no further extensions to the scheme, the bank’s governor, Mervyn King, said it could be expanded should the economy need further help. CPI inflation increased to 3.5% in January, which partly reflected the increase in VAT back to 17.5%. But the bank’s quarterly Inflation Report projected a lower growth outlook and lower medium-term inflation.

Corporate activity was headed by defence and engineering firm Babcock International’s pursuit of VT Group, a support services company. VT rejected Babcock’s £1.29 billion approach and reiterated its own interest in Mouchel, which builds and operates road, rail and water networks.

 

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Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Limited (SWIP) is registered in England and Wales, Company No. 794936. Registered Office is at 33 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HZ. Tel: 0131 655 8500. SWIP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is entered on their register under number 193707 (www.fsa.gov.uk).