| | Thursday 16 August 2012 QUOTE OF THE DAY There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it
- Mary Little
THIS MORNING IN LONDON FTSE 100 5,818.33 
-14.71 -0.25% FTSE 250 11,479.93
-18.19 -0.16% FTSE 350 3,089.01
-7.43 -0.24% FTSE All Share 3,021.93
-7.14 -0.24% AIM 100 3,080.44
-5.35 -0.17% AIM All Share 682.27
-0.35 -0.05% 11:59 am
Stocks fall despite retail data and stimulus hopes
- UK retail sales beat estimates in July
- Investors eye US data
- Chinese stimulus hopes increase
After a pretty subdued start, the Footsie had fallen further into the red by Thursday lunchtime in spite of some better-than-expected UK retail sales data.
Sales volumes rose by 0.3% during July, up 2.8% on an annual basis, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The market consensus was looking for a change of -0.1% and 1.4%, respectively.
The July trading period covered just two days when the Olympics Games had begun in London (July 27th and 28th). However, the ONS said: "Feedback from retailers suggests that there has been no impact on sales from the Games in this trading period."
Attention now turns to the US, where house-building stats out this afternoon will give an indication of the state of the US housing market, which has a knock-on effect on consumer sentiment. Economists expect starts will have slipped to an annualised figure of 732,000 from 760,000 in June.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on the manufacturing report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia after yesterday's disappointing manufacturing update from the New York Fed. Economists are expecting Philly manufacturing activity to have contracted in July, but the forecast index reading of -4.0 would at least represent an improvement on June's reading of -12.9.
Also in focus today was the news of slowing inward investment in China in July. Foreign direct investment in China fell 8.7% to a two-year low of $7.58bn last month. Yesterday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that he sees "growing room for monetary policy operation" as inflation slows down.
Company movers: ABG jumps on takeover speculation
African Barrick Gold (ABG) surged this morning after announcing that its holding company, Barrick Gold, is in talks with China National Gold Group about the possibility of selling its stake in the FTSE 250 miner to China's largest gold producer. Should China Gold buy up more than 30% of the voting interest in ABG from Barrick Gold, it would then be required to make an offer for the whole of ABG's issued ordinary share capital.
The mining sector was broadly higher this morning on hopes that potential stimulus measures in China would boost the demand for commodities. Evraz, Kazakhmys, Vedanta and Fresnillo were among the best performers. Banking peers Lloyds and RBS were also making decent gains.
Pharmaceuticals group Hikma was a high riser after first-half revenues rose 34.8%, helped by contributions from recent acquisitions. Organic revenue growth was still a solid 7.6%. Software specialist Micro Focus edged lower after revealing news of a 50p-a-share cash return and share consolidation. The firm also said that first-quarter financials were in line with expectations, with adjusted earnings flat year-on-year on a constant currency basis.
Engineering support services firm Babcock was in the red after Espirito Santo downgraded its rating on the stock to 'neutral', while natural gas giant BG Group fell after Morgan Stanley cut its rating to 'equal weight'. Insurance groups Admiral and Prudential were off the pace in the morning session, with the latter being weighed down by comments from Nomura. The broker maintained its 'reduce' rating on the stock and cut its target price today, saying that the valuation is too high.
Publishing group Reed Elsevier was in demand after announcing the appointment of Duncan Palmer as its Chief Financial Officer, having lured him away from US company Owens Corning. Palmer will take over from Mark Armour, who is retiring at the end of the year.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 730.00p +2.10%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 32.57p +1.92%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 936.50p +1.85%
IMI (IMI) 900.50p +1.81%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,740.00p +1.75%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 225.10p +1.58%
Evraz (EVR) 266.40p +1.52%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,509.00p +1.34%
Tesco (TSCO) 336.75p +1.25%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,962.50p +1.19%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,157.00p -2.12%
Carnival (CCL) 2,149.00p -1.92%
Prudential (PRU) 808.00p -1.82%
Pennon Group (PNN) 751.50p -1.64%
Sage Group (SGE) 297.20p -1.62%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 185.85p -1.54%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 576.00p -1.37%
BG Group (BG.) 1,303.50p -1.32%
Capita (CPI) 729.50p -1.22%
Bunzl (BNZL) 1,097.00p -1.17%
FTSE 250 - Risers
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 433.50p +10.14%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 755.50p +4.21%
Avocet Mining (AVM) 92.00p +4.13%
Ruspetro (RPO) 148.10p +3.64%
Rank Group (RNK) 125.00p +3.31%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 105.30p +3.24%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 445.30p +2.89%
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 295.60p +2.60%
Computacenter (CCC) 369.40p +2.47%
NMC Health (NMC) 197.00p +2.18%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 287.60p -2.87%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 422.40p -2.63%
CSR (CSR) 325.00p -2.37%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 567.00p -2.24%
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 32.84p -2.03%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 463.90p -2.01%
WH Smith (SMWH) 565.50p -1.82%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 165.30p -1.78%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 142.00p -1.73%
Greggs (GRG) 497.50p -1.68%
WHAT THE BROKERS SAY
FREE SHARE TIP OF THE DAY  An extract from the diaries of infamous bear raider Evil Knievil
Condor Gold (CNR) continues to show remarkable strength, now 130p offer. I got landed with these in a placing at 100p some time ago and had basically written them off when the price hit 50p. But this smells like one that can move on up again.
Click here to view the rest of the article
THE LATEST ON THE CRAZY BOARD The top 5 hot company threads on the Bulletin Board: Falkland Oil & Gas - Transense Zoltav Resources Fiberweb Running trading thread
Click here to discuss shares with other ShareCrazy members
BOOK OF THE WEEK  By Jeffrey Tennant
A book review by Aaron Padgham of t1ps.com A brand new and exclusive tool from trading the Standard and Poor's 500 Index, the MEJT system allows traders to make predictions over future support and resistance levels based on price actions over certain points in the day. The system - whose name derives from the initials of its two creators - also defines which trends may have a staying power and which ones should retrace. MEJT is however different from most other technical analysis tools in the sense that the system only applies to the S&P; it cannot be used with other indices nor foreign exchange and commodities. As author Jeffrey Tennant writes "give the MEJT system the right environment and it blossoms".
Click here to view the rest of the article |
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