| CATEGORY: RISERS AND FALLERS SECTOR: TOBACCO |
FTSE 100 risers: Imperial up on court ruling |
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Tue 31 May 2005
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - Imperial Tobacco moved up the FTSE 100 leaderboard today as it won the first UK smoking court case.
Margaret McTear brought a £500,000 case against Imperial after her husband died of lung cancer at the age of 48. She blamed glamorous advertising for the start of his habit, which increased to 60-a-day, though the Court ruled that the public were well aware of the health risks of smoking in 1964, when McTear started.
Elsewhere, miners moved ahead, boosted by the fall in the valueof the South African Rand and upbeat economic noises from China. Xstrata and Anglo American both rose higher.
Fallers included defensive plays Unilever, which UBS downgraded to reduce after its recent strong climb, and water utility Severn Trent, which Merril chopped to neutral after its strong gains recently.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Xstrata (XTA) 1,000.00p +2.46%
Upbeat Chinese GDP forecasts
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,163.00p +2.38%
Miners strong on China outlook
Imperial Tobacco (IMT) 1,484.00p +2.27%
UK smoking case thrown out
Rio Tinto (RIO) 1,647.00p +1.79%
Miners strong
Anglo American (AAL) 1,341.00p +1.28%
Sector in favour on Chinese demand hopes
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Unilever (ULVR) 540.00p -1.73%
Broker downgrade
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 151.50p -1.62%
Reports it is poised to bid for PHS
Old Mutual (OML) 118.25p -1.46%
Skandia uncertainty, weak rand
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,009.50p -1.32%
Broker downgrade
Wolseley (WOS) 1,119.00p -1.24%
Consumer slowdown uncertainty.
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