- Oil surges on falling Iranian exports- BoE tells banks to raise capital ASAP- BT leads the rise, miners trim lossesLondon's blue chips rallied in afternoon trade with the Footsie surging in the last two hours to finish in positive territory as oil prices jumped.According to report in Reuters, oil exports from Iran fell by 300,000 barrels a day (14%) in March, the first drop since January when the EU announced to embargo the country's crude. Brent futures on the ICE Europe were 1.38% higher at $124.86 by 17:00 in London, having surpassed the $126 level earlier on.After an earlier sell-off which saw the majority of miners on the benchmark index fall into the red, losses were pared as stocks swung into the blue. Despite the late rally, the FTSE 100 still finished 111 points off last Friday's close of 5,966. "Deteriorating confidence in the global growth outlook led to a worsening of investor sentiment this week. Investors took profit on their equity exposure, pushing all equity markets except the Nasdaq into negative territory," said Stefan Angele from Swiss & Global Asset Management. In domestic news, the Nationwide consumer confidence index declined from 47 to 44 in February. "The fall in confidence was broadly based with deteriorations seen in consumers' assessment of the current economic situation, the future outlook and their willingness to pay," said analysts at Barclays Capital. The Bank of England (BoE) has warned banks that they must raise external capital as early as is feasible. The Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which acts as a watchdog for the BoE, published a report expressing its concerns that "capital is not yet at levels that would ensure resilience in the face of prospective risks". Meanwhile in Europe, it appears that the optimism surrounding the recent mass inflow of money provided by the European Central Bank (ECB) is starting to wear off. Ex-ECB member Jürgen Stark warned that the monetary authority's LTROs could lead to higher inflation in the medium term as it couldn't possibly be quickly absorbed by the system. BT LEADS THE RISEThe big news of the day was surrounding telecoms group BT, which jumped 5% after announcing plans to eliminate its pension deficit within 10 years. BT said it would make a lump sum payment of £2bn into its pension scheme to nearly halve the £4.1bn deficit. This would then be followed by nine separate payments of £325m every March until 2021. US investment bank Jefferies said this morning that the agreement gives BT scope to raise its dividend, something that "has been a longstanding driver of our positive view on BT."Next was performing well following the release of its full-year results yesterday. Nomura raised its target price on the stock this morning, saying that it continues to view the shares as a "core holding in the sector". Randgold Resources continues to be plagued by disruption concerns in Mali. Yesterday, shares sank as much as 15% on the back of reports of a military coup in Mali, the country where some of its main projects are located. While the firm has assured that operations are still running normally, the stock was hit by a downgrade from Citigroup this morning. Mining peers Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Vedanta and Polymetal finished the day strongly.Lloyds rose despite announcing yesterday that its sale of 632 branches to the Co-op is proving trickier than first thought, due to the "complex" nature of the deal. Meanwhile, HSBC was in the red after announcing the sale of a large stake in its Middle East private equity arm HPEME. ESSAR TOPS THE LIST ON THE FTSE 250India-focused energy company Essar Energy was given a boost after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock from equal weight to overweight and raised the target price from 160p to 225p. The stock has lost more than two-thirds of its value over the last year as it has been embroiled in a tax dispute with the Indian authorities. Meanwhile Cable & Wireless Worldwide fell after City AM reported that a number of Vodafone Group's board of directors oppose a bid for the company. The directors are believed to hold concerns that a bid for C&WW would damage its reputation, the publication said. BCFTSE 100 - RisersBT Group (BT.A) 232.10p +5.40%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 377.10p +3.17%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,172.00p +2.72%Next (NXT) 2,987.00p +2.51%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 935.50p +2.46%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,660.00p +2.41%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,315.00p +2.18%Polymetal International (POLY) 960.50p +2.07%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.98p +2.06%Barclays (BARC) 244.50p +2.05%FTSE 100 - FallersBurberry Group (BRBY) 1,513.00p -2.01%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,650.00p -1.99%Wolseley (WOS) 2,464.00p -1.60%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,564.00p -1.57%CRH (CRH) 1,319.00p -1.35%Capita (CPI) 728.00p -1.15%United Utilities Group (UU.) 611.00p -1.13%Croda International (CRDA) 2,097.00p -1.08%Hammerson (HMSO) 414.00p -1.05%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 337.80p -1.00%FTSE 250 - RisersEssar Energy (ESSR) 153.80p +9.08%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 47.15p +5.72%Ruspetro (RPO) 189.70p +3.83%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 19.55p +3.71%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 432.60p +3.12%Telecom Plus (TEP) 687.00p +2.84%Northgate (NTG) 220.00p +2.80%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 293.90p +2.62%Inmarsat (ISAT) 471.90p +2.59%Lancashire Holdings (LRE) 779.00p +2.57%FTSE 250 - FallersGem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 284.60p -6.26%Exillon Energy (EXI) 172.80p -5.26%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 402.00p -3.60%Computacenter (CCC) 418.30p -3.31%Premier Oil (PMO) 412.60p -3.19%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,186.00p -3.10%Persimmon (PSN) 641.50p -2.95%London & Stamford Property Ltd. (LSP) 110.50p -2.64%SEGRO (SGRO) 235.90p -2.28%TR Property Inv Trust Sigma Shares (TRYS) 70.00p -2.10%
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