Friday morning business bulletin

Jun 20 2008 By Andrew Mernin

Housebuilders and fuel-thirsty stocks such as British Airways and Carnival made strong gains during a decent start to trading in London today.

The decision by China to raise energy prices kept the cost of a barrel of oil below recent records and meant BA rose 4.25p to 230.25p and cruise ship firm Carnival lifted 32p to 1771p in the first hour of trading.

The FTSE 100 Index stood 3.2 points higher at 5711.6 at the end of a volatile week for the London market.

Housebuilders were also off recent lows, with Persimmon setting the pace during its final session as a blue-chip stock. Shares rose 22.5p to 387.5p, a gain of 6%, while FTSE 250 counterpart Barratt Developments jumped 18% or 13.5p to 91.75p and Taylor Wimpey gained 6.5p to 73p.

Barclays is close to sealing a £470m capital injection from Japan’s third largest bank as it seeks to boost its funding, according to reports today.

The banking giant is said to be in talks with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group over a potential 100 billion yen deal, which would reportedly see the Japanese firm take a 2% or 3% stake in Barclays.

Barclays said earlier this week it planned to sell shares to new and existing shareholders in an effort to shore up its balance sheet without resorting to a full blown discounted rights issue.

Shares leapt 12% at one stage on Monday amid reports that Barclays is looking to raise up to £4 billion from overseas investors, offering shares at a premium to the current share price.

Car parts and bicycle retailer Halfords today named former Tesco director David Wild as chief executive after a four-month search to fill the top job.

Manchester-born Mr Wild, who previously worked at supermarket giant Tesco for 18 years, will start at Halfords on August 4.

He replaces the group’s highly-rated boss of three years Ian McLeod, who disappointed the City in February with news he was quitting to run supermarket chain Coles in Australia.

Mr Wild, who is 53, joins from Asda parent Wal-Mart, where he most recently acted as senior vice-president for new business development.

The retail veteran previously worked at Tesco in a raft of roles, including head of its Central European operation and latterly group supply chain director.

The pound at 9am was US$1.9726 compared to US$1.9729 at the previous close while the euro at 9am was £0.7884  compared to £0.7856 at the previous close.