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ITV higher despite a difficult outlook

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Having started a new week relatively positively, equity markets were soon spooked by the outcome of the latest Italian bond auction, the 5 year yield of 6.29% coming despite the replacement of Silvio Berlusconi with former European Commissioner Mario Monti as the head of a new emergency government. The €3 billion euros worth of debt demanded the highest yield in more than 14 years, evidence that eurozone worries are still very much driving sentiment despite recent progress on the political front. A further manifestation of the trouble was evident in Italy’s biggest Bank, UniCredit falling more than 6% after the market learnt that it planned to raise up to €7.5 billion euros via the issuance of new shares. The third quarter results also showed a €10.6 billion loss for the period, and the abandonment of its 2011 dividend.

ITV was the best performer among the UK’s blue chips, investors reacting positively to its 3Q trading update which showed revenue up 4% in the first nine months of the year. This was driven in part by a strong program schedule, including the Rugby World Cup, the X-Factor and I’m a Celebrity, and a strong studio division. Despite forecasting a tough Christmas (and hence 4thquarter) due to a strong period last year, analysts at UBS and Numis upgraded the stock, the latter to 85p, helping the shares put on 3.3% to 65.75p.

The FTSE ended the day lower by 26 points, a 0.5% loss which resulted in a closing level of 5519. American Indices were in negative territory at the time of writing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Dance .