Partner Article

IMF seeking to bolster its firepower to $1 trillion

The unemployment rate for the UK came in at 8.4% today, although forecasters had expected
no change on last month’s 8.3% rate. This meant that a total of 2.68 million people were out
of work, increasing by 118,000 over the last three months. This came despite a lower than
anticipated claimant count change for December, during which only 1,200 extra people signed on for
Jobseeker’s Allowance.

News that the International Monetary Fund would bolster its lending resources to help protect
economies affected by the Eurozone debt crisis provided some support to the market today. The
extent of its expansion, an extra $500 billion to create a total pot of up to $1 trillion, was welcomed
by markets who have previously seen Europe’s financial commitment to stemming the crisis as
insufficient. The Washington based fund is looking at a variety of ways to expand its arsenal, which
would potentially require the UK to add an extra £17 billion on top of its current contributions,
breaching a ceiling authorised by our parliament.

The news was sufficient however to boost risk appetite ensuring the FTSE100 finished the day 8
points higher, an extra 0.15%, to 5702. The relatively flat market did however disguise a number a
substantial moves on a stock specific level.

Shares in Man group were one of the biggest gainers by market close, finishing up 6.8% after
investors reacted well to news that investor outflows from its funds slowed in the fourth quarter of
last year. The world’s largest listed hedge fund manager also received a number of analyst upgrades
after the shares have almost halved since September.

At the other end of the scale, trading without its dividend as of today ensured that Imperial Tobacco
Group lost 4.8% of its value to close at 2246p.

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