Markets flat ahead of Spanish bond auctions
Market Movers
techMARK 2,192.82 +0.36%
FTSE 100 6,105.46 +0.02%
FTSE 250 12,766.37 +0.02%
London's benchmark index opened tentatively on Thursday morning ahead of another big day for corporate earnings in the US.
It looks to be a quiet morning for Europe with little data due out, so the focus is likely to be on debt auctions in Spain, as the Treasury attempts to sell 2015, 2018 and 2041 bonds.
"These auctions should go ok, mostly because Spanish yields have been
relatively stable of late and other auctions in the past few weeks have
shown good demand, especially as no major changes or events have taken
place as Spain and the European financial crisis is concerned," said
Markus Huber, the head of German HNW trading at ETX Capital.
In contrast, the economic data schedule Stateside looks quite busy, with jobless claims, building permits, housing starts and the Philly Fed index due out later on.
Meanwhile, Wall Street heavyweights Bank of America, Citigroup and Intel are scheduled to release their fourth-quarter earnings today.
Huber said: "Despite US earnings season
having gotten off to a very respectable start so far, the overall stock
market is being held back from posting further major advances to the
upside on increasing worries about the debt ceiling and concerns that
global growth might not be picking up as much in 2013 as previously
hoped with several major institutions having downgraded their forecasts
for 2013 in recent weeks.
"It will have to be seen if US
corporate earnings report will manage to remain the main focus of
traders or if the wrangling over extending the debt ceiling will
increasingly overshadow and neutralise positive earnings reports."
FTSE 100: AB Foods impresses; Rio disappoints
Associated British Foods
made decent gains early on after strong retail and sugar sales buoyed
encouraging growth in the 16 weeks to January 5th. Total revenues were
up 10% year-on-year.
Heading the other way was mining giant Rio Tinto
after its CEO Tom Albanese stepped down following an announcement by
the company that it expects to recognise a non-cash impairment charge of
approximately $14bn in its 2012 full-year results.
Real estate investment trust Hammerson gained after entering into a joint venture worth £1bn with Westfield to redevelop the retail centre of Croydon.
Investment management group Aberdeen
fell despite saying that assets under management rose 3% in is first
quarter. The group did show an element of caution in its outlook,
however, saying that while stock markets have begun strongly in the
2103, "we believe that uncertainty still persists and that further
periods of volatility remain likely in the months ahead".
Oil giant BP
was subdued after yesterday's news that Islamist militants have
kidnapped foreigners in a terrorist attack at one of its gas fields in
Algeria. Overnight, it has been confirmed that two people have been
killed in the attack.
Home Retail jumps early on
Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail rocketed this morning after lifting its profit guidance for the full year after a decent performance at Argos.
Translation and communications software group SDL was in the red after saying that profits would fall short of market forecasts. Transport, logistics and support services firm Stobart was also lower after saying that full-year results will miss current market forecasts after a mixed third quarter.
Dixons Retail was firmly lower despite reporting a 7% rise in like-for-like sales in the 12 weeks to January 5th.
| AIM/Small Cap Report |
FTSE 100 - Risers
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,625.00p +4.43%
BT Group (BT.A) 247.60p +2.65%
Old Mutual (OML) 185.00p +1.59%
IMI (IMI) 1,139.00p +1.42%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 797.00p +1.08%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 852.50p +1.07%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 353.80p +1.06%
Barclays (BARC) 295.55p +0.73%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 204.40p +0.69%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,058.00p +0.69%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,355.00p -2.98%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,077.00p -1.82%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 384.60p -1.81%
Xstrata (XTA) 1,127.00p -1.36%
Glencore International (GLEN) 376.05p -1.10%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,678.00p -1.00%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,057.00p -0.94%
Kingfisher (KGF) 285.90p -0.87%
Carnival (CCL) 2,498.00p -0.87%
SSE (SSE) 1,425.00p -0.84%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Home Retail Group (HOME) 139.00p +14.40%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 383.70p +3.59%
Computacenter (CCC) 434.00p +3.33%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 376.40p +2.84%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,990.00p +1.98%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 733.00p +1.88%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 83.85p +1.70%
Ted Baker (TED) 1,176.80p +1.54%
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 37.75p +1.48%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 173.50p +1.46%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 296.10p -5.31%
Dixons Retail (DXNS) 26.34p -2.84%
SDL (SDL) 501.00p -2.34%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 442.00p -2.21%
Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 93.10p -2.05%
Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 632.00p -1.86%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,260.00p -1.64%
Regus (RGU) 110.90p -1.51%
Grainger (GRI) 124.30p -1.51%
IP Group (IPO) 124.70p -1.34% |
| FX round-up |
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| FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |
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Euro falls versus dollar as yen gains fade
The euro slipped against the dollar for the second consecutive day on Wednesday on jitters about the Eurozone.
Comments from Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Eurogroup President
Jean-Claude Juncker that the shared currency is “dangerously high”
weighed heavily on the euro.
The single currency euro dropped to a low of $1.3255 before later changing hands at $1.3288 compared to $1.3312 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the dollar was little moved by the Federal Reserve's Beige
Book, which sees economic expansion in the US as 'modest or moderate'.
It added that the economy expanded at either a modest or moderate rate
in December and early January, as spending and hiring were restrained by
worries over fiscal policy.
The dollar index, which
measures the US currency against a basket of six major currencies,
climbed to 79.807 compared with 79.721 on Tuesday.
The yen continued
to advance against the dollar and euro on Wednesday, but at a slower
pace, as markets continued to mull the recent warning from a Japanese
official about excessive yen weakness.
The Japanese currency
was been boosted earlier in the week after Japanese Economy Minister
Akira Amari said that an excessively weak yen was not good for Japan’s
economy.
The dollar changed hands at a low of ¥87.76 but later recovered to ¥88.43 versus ¥88.91 the previous session.
Sterling traded at $1.6006 from $1.6068 on Tuesday.
UK Event Calendar
INTERIMS
NCC Group
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Hyder Consulting, red24, Sweett Group
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Budget Statement (US) (19:00)
Consumer Price Index (EU) (10:00)
ECB Report (EU) (09:00)
Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (EU) (10:00)
Housing Starts (US) (13:30)
Philadelphia Fed Index (US) (15:00)
Wholesale Price Index (GER) (07:00)
GMS
Darty
IMSS
Aberdeen Asset Management, Associated British Foods, Home Retail Group
AGMS
Aberdeen Asset Management
TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Computacenter, Dixons Retail
FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Sportingbet
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| Thursday newspaper round-up |
Boeing, Goldman pay, Blockbuster...
Europe, Japan and India on Thursday joined the United States in grounding their fleet of Boeing Dreamliner 787s,
a day after a Japanese aircraft was forced to make an emergency
landing. Japanese Transport Ministry Vice Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said
the grounding was for an indefinite period, and India's aviation
regulator said it was unclear when the aircraft would be back in
service. The emergency landing of Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA)
outside Tokyo on Wednesday was the sixth incident in the past 10 days to
hit the Dreamliner, which Boeing has spent billions of dollars on and
touted as the future of air travel, due to its radical new design,
systems and materials. [The Telegraph]
Goldman Sachs
risked stoking the row over City pay on Wednesday by revealing its
bankers were paid an average of $400,000 (£250,000) each last year, a
rise of more than $30,000 a head on 2011. Goldman's annual financial
results show the bank has set aside $13bn to cover the salaries, bonuses
and perks for the 32,400 it employs around the world. Details of the
payroll come just a day after the bank was forced to back down from
plans to defer bonuses until April so that its highly paid staff could
avoid the 50% tax rate. The size of the bill to pay staff is 6% higher
than a year ago. However, the average individual payouts to staff are
higher as the number of employees has fallen by 3%. [The Guardian]
Administrators have raised hopes that a “profitable core” of Blockbuster
shops could be salvaged after dismal Christmas trading prompted the DVD
rental chain to collapse under a mountain of debt. Blockbuster followed
HMV and Jessops to become the third household name in a week to fail on
Britain’s high streets yesterday after sustaining losses of almost £1
million a month last year. The British business owes £23 million to its
Colorado-based parent company in unpaid royalties for the use of the
Blockbuster name and in loans to stock up for a Christmas rush that
never arrived. Suppliers are owed a further £3 million. [The Times]
Gunmen believed to be Islamist militants kidnapped dozens of expatriate
workers on Wednesday at a natural gas facility in southeastern Algeria jointly operated by BP and Statoil.
The UK government confirmed on Thursday that one of the three people
believed killed in the attack was British although William Hague,
foreign secretary, said it was still unclear how many Britons were being
held by the kidnappers as the stand-off with Algerian security forces
at the In Amenas facility entered a second day.
Algerian
officials said at least nine people were taken hostage but some local
media reported that up to 41 foreigners had been seized. British,
Japanese, French, US, Norwegian and Irish nationals were among the
hostages, according to diplomats and media. With French ground forces
moving into action in neighbouring Mali, there are fears that the
hostage-taking is in retaliation for the intervention, aimed at pushing
Islamist groups back from their advances on the south of the country. [Financial Times]
The architect of ring-fencing UK banks
has welcomed MPs' proposals to electrify those fences. Sir John
Vickers, who headed last year's Independent Commission on Banking, told
the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards today that he believed
electrification would make it more likely ring-fencing the retail parts
of banks from their investment business would work. [The Independent]
Hopes that the UK economy might avoid a triple-dip recession have received a boost as a survey showed marketing spend
grew at its fastest rate for over a year, despite the tough economy.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising's quarterly bellwether
survey said a net 1.1 per cent of companies increased spend in the last
three months of 2012, the highest since the third quarter of 2011. The
trade body found a majority of advertisers planned to increase budgets
this year and ad spend should "steadily accelerate" by 2017. [The Independent]
National Australia Bank
(NAB) could boost its market value by up to A$4.5 billion (£3bn) by
spinning off its loss-making Clydesdale division as a separately-listed
entity, analysts have claimed. The lender is under pressure to improve
its shareholder returns and group chief executive Cameron Clyne is due
to unveil a strategy in March aimed at reducing costs by encouraging
more customers to bank online. Clyne has previously ruled out a “fire
sale” of NAB’s UK business in an effort to avoid shareholder losses, but
has acknowledged that it will be some time before the division is able
to generate “acceptable returns”. [The Scotsman]
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