City stands firm in Istanbul fallout

THE City regained its poise today although yesterday's bomb attacks in Turkey continued to unnerve global markets.

The FTSE 100 index of leading shares rose 16 points to 4334 despite losses on Wall Street and in Asia.

But analysts said investors would remain cautious amid worries about further terror attacks. HSBC, whose Istanbul headquarters was hit by a blast, rebounded 13 1/2p to 873 1/2p.

Turkey's lira clawed back losses, climbing to 1.466m to the dollar compared with 1.478m just after the explosions.

The Istanbul Stock Exchange, which plunged more than 7% before trading was halted, remains closed and will reopen on 1 December after a week's holiday to mark the end of Ramadan.

Analysts said the attacks on HSBC and the British Consulate were a setback to Turkey's recovery, but would not derail it.

On foreign exchanges, the dollar climbed against sterling to 1.705.

Gold also benefited from investor jitters, adding $2.65 cents to $396.10 an ounce.

Oil jumped following news that rockets had blasted into the Iraqi oil ministry. Brent crude rose four cents to $29.60 a barrel.