Footsie unchanged as another quiet day expected
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techMARK 2,064.40 -0.10%
FTSE 100 5,783.62 -0.13%
FTSE 250 11,852.08 -0.08% UK stocks was broadly unchanged on Friday morning in anticipation of another quiet day on markets with Wall Street only open for half a session following Thanksgiving yesterday.
"European headline shares opened tentatively today as investors remained apprehensive towards risk-on assets in the face of an early finish to US equity trading today as well as a weekend packed with uncertainty regarding whether Greece will agree a lending agreement with its international lenders on Monday," said financial trader Shavaz Dhalla from Spreadex.
Dhalla said that investor’s patience is "nearing the end of its tether" with Monday's Eurogroup meeting on Greece being the third of its kind without an agreement. "A lack of agreement on Monday could prove ‘three strikes are out’ for investor’s tolerance regarding Greece’s negotiations with its international lenders," he said.
Meanwhile, trade was cautious this morning ahead of a key reading of business confidence in Germany. The Ifo Institute's business climate index is expected to fall from 100 in October to a near three-year low of 99.5 in November.
A summit of European Union leaders overnight to discuss a new seven-year budget was adjourned in the early hours of this morning and will kick off again at 11:00.
Speaking to reporters after the first day of meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that "position remains too far apart". She said: “Probably there will be no result at the end of this summit. There may be some progress but it is probable that we will need to meet again at a second stage.” ENRC rises early on
Mining giant ENRC rose after announcing that it is putting more on its Chairman's plate in order to let its Chief Executive Officer focus more on operations, "notably cost and operational efficiencies across the group's assets."
Sector peer Xstrata was also higher after saying that its nickel division has completed the construction of the first production line at the Koniambo project has been completed, with first metal anticipated in January.
It was announced yesterday afternoon that Xstrata's merger with commodities giant Glencore has won the blessing of the European Commission.
However, Anglo American, EVRAZ and Rio Tinto were bucking the trend, registering slight losses this morning.
FTSE 250 precious metals group Hochschild Mining was also lower this morning after saying that it now expects to get the construction permits for its Inmaculada and Crespo projects in the second half of 2013 following delays by the Peruvian government.
Eurasia Mining jumped after confirming the extension of its exploration licence at West Kytlim covering the Tylai-Kosvinsky Placer in the Urals Region of Russia.
Utilities giant Severn Trent was lower after voicing concerns with Ofwat's proposed water price controls in response to a statement by the regulator this week which welcomed "constructive" criticism. | AIM/Small Cap Report | FTSE 100 - Risers
Compass Group (CPG) 719.00p +0.70%
Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 343.00p +0.70%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 169.20p +0.65%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,233.50p +0.54%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 273.80p +0.48%
Carnival (CCL) 2,531.00p +0.40%
Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 232.90p +0.39%
Kingfisher (KGF) 277.90p +0.32%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,492.00p +0.32%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,341.00p +0.30%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 1,687.50p -1.00%
Melrose (MRO) 213.00p -0.93%
Evraz (EVR) 235.20p -0.89%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,228.00p -0.89%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 290.10p -0.89%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,986.00p -0.80%
CRH (CRH) 1,116.00p -0.80%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,530.00p -0.76%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,274.00p -0.66%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,560.00p -0.64%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Menzies(John) (MNZS) 604.50p +1.77%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 520.00p +1.36%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 202.30p +1.25%
Regus (RGU) 97.15p +1.20%
Ruspetro (RPO) 85.00p +1.19%
Halma (HLMA) 434.60p +1.12%
Cobham (COB) 204.60p +1.04%
Britvic (BVIC) 404.05p +1.01%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 772.50p +0.98%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 270.20p +0.90%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 469.30p -3.69%
Savills (SVS) 424.00p -3.20%
Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 97.20p -2.75%
RPC Group (RPC) 415.70p -2.67%
Lonmin (LMI) 293.00p -2.04%
Laird (LRD) 221.80p -1.81%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 456.90p -1.32%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 353.40p -1.31%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 76.00p -1.30%
Perform Group (PER) 400.00p -1.23%
| European broker round-up |  | | FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |  |  |  |  | | EU fails to reach agreement on budget, progress on Greece FTSE-100: -0.07%
Dax-30: -0.18%
Cac-40: -0.34%
FTSE Mibtel 30: -0.44%
Ibex 35: -0.34%
Stoxx 600: -0.13%
“Positions remain too far apart,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reported to have said last night after the first session of the EU heads of States summit in Brussels whose aim is to thrash out a new long-term budget, for the period running from 2014 and 2020. She added that while some progress might be achieved at the current gathering there may need to be further meetings down the road before an agreement is reached.
For his part, the President of the EU Council, Herrmann Van Rompuy, emphasised that this is a long-term budget such that austerity must be balanced against the need to plan out all the way to the end of the current decade.
The assembled leaders were to continue their meetings throughout Friday.
As regards Greece, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now willing to accept that the country's debt load would be sustainable if it falls to 124% of GDP by 2020, instead of the earlier target of 120% which it had been holding out for, a Greek official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Even so, European leaders have yet to fill a 10bn euro gap before the IMF is willing to release the next tranche of aid for the Mediterranean country. EADS off Shares of EADS were falling by over 2% in the early going. The German government will purchase shares in the pan-European aeronautics behemoth from France, German daily Handelsblatt reported, citing unidentified German government sources.
Analysts at Berenberg Bank downgraded their recommendation on shares of Danone to sell from hold.
The best performers on the DJ Stoxx 600 were the following: Retail (0.26%), Insurance (0.13%) and Food&Beverage (0.12%). Investors waiting on latest IFO reading Germany gross domestic product grew at a 0.2% quarter-on-quarter pace in the third quarter, as expected. While investment in machinery and inventories weighted on GDP private consumption and net exports served to propel economic activity forward.
French statistics institute INSEE’s business confidence index for the month of November came in at 87 points, versus 85 in October (Consensus: 86).
The German IFO business confidence index for the month of November will be released at 09:00. Single currency little changed The euro/dollar was rising by 0.05% to the 1.2883 dollar mark.
Front month Brent crude futures were down by 0.054 dollars to the 110.49 dollar level on the ICE. UK Event Calendar INTERIMS
Max Property Group, Picton Property Income Ltd, Sweett Group
INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Bovis Homes Group, Harvey Nash Group, Menzies(John), Octopus VCT , RSA Insurance Group, Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust, Ted Baker, Walker Greenbank
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gross Domestic Product (GER) (07:00)
IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)
IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)
IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)
GMS
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Croma Security Solutions Group
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KT Corp. ADR
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Draganfly Investments Ltd., Hargreaves Lansdown, Hargreaves Services, Petmin Ltd. (DI), Rialto Energy Ltd (DI)
UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
BBA Mortgage Lending Figures (09:30)
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Abcam, Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, El Oro Ltd, Genus, Mcbride, Murgitroyd Group, Smiths Group | US Market Report | There is no US closing report today due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
FX round-up: Euro makes strong gains
The euro made strong gains on Thursday, rising most notably against the Japanese yen as the global economic outlook strengthed on the back of positive data out from China.
The single currency was trading as high as ¥106.57 at one point, the highest exchange seen since late April.
HSBC's preliminary China manufacturing data showed November manufacturing activity in China accelerated in November for the first time in over a year. The flash Chinese purchasing managers’ index for October rose to 50.4 from 49.5 the previous month. A figure above 50 indicates expansion and a figure below 50 indicates a contraction.
Meanwhile, the euro swapped hands at $1.2886, up from $1.2826 the previous day.
The ICE dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, dropped from 80.937 on Wednesday to 80.704 last night.
The British pound dropped to buy $1.5937 last night, compared to $1.5942 the previous evening.
Commodities: Oil futures slip on cease-fire deal
Crude oil futures slipped on Thursday after a temporary cease-fire was agreed between Israel and Hamas, reducing the risk of supply problems in the Middle East region.
The commodity closed down 0.3% at $87.12 per barrel on the NYMEX, having hit a high of $87.83 earlier in the day.
Also providing support to the commodity was the news that HSBC's preliminary China manufacturing data showed November manufacturing activity in China accelerated in November for the first time in over a year. The flash Chinese purchasing managers’ index for October rose to 50.4 from 49.5 the previous month. A figure above 50 indicates expansion and a figure below 50 indicates a contraction.
NYMEX floor trading was closed on Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
Meanwhile, the December contract for natural gas futures climbed 0.26% to settle at $3.91, while heating oil dropped 0.24% to $3.06.
Gold was also boosted by the Chinese data, rising 0.08% to settle at $1,729.50 per ounce. |
| Friday newspaper round-up | EU summit, UBS, RBS branch sale... European leaders voiced pessimism on Friday on reaching a deal on a trillion-euro EU budget, as gruelling talks pushed into a second day with little prospect of bridging bitter divisions. The summit talks in Brussels were suspended overnight after less than an hour and a half, having already begun hours late on Thursday due to the vast differences on the need for cuts between the bloc's have and have-not nations. The negotiations were scheduled to resume at 11.00 on Friday once delegates from the 27 member nations have had time to examine new proposals on the 2014-2020 budget submitted by EU president Herman Van Rompuy. [ The Telegraph] UBS will have to pay one of the largest fines ever imposed by the UK’s financial regulator for management failures that led to the Swiss bank’s $2.3bn rogue trading loss, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The Financial Services Authority and UBS are finalising the details of a settlement penalty that will probably be between £20m and £50m, with a joint announcement expected as soon as next week. Switzerland’s financial regulator, Finma, does not have the power to levy fines and will instead force UBS to accept strict new supervisory measures. [ The Financial Times] The former chairman of Standard Chartered could return to banking through the 316-branch division being sold by Royal Bank of Scotland. Corsair Capital, the private equity firm where Lord Davies of Abersoch is a partner and vice-chairman, has expressed interest in thebusiness . It is unclear whether the Welsh banker, who is a former Trade Minister and conducted a government review of the number of women on company boards, would take on a direct role in running the business. Lord Davies, who this week was named chairman of Chime Communications, did not comment yesterday. [ The Times] Deloitte faced more questions over its relationship with the software firm at the eye of a storm over alleged "accounting improprieties" yesterday, as a shareholder adviser said it had repeatedly raised concerns over the fees racked up by the auditor for other work. PIRC, which advises pension funds investing £1.5trn in total, said that Autonomy had "raised a number of red flags" regarding corporate governance. Hewlett-Packard bought the Cambridge-based firm for $10.3bn (£6.5bn) last year, but the US giant wrote off $8.8bn on Tuesday, accusing its former management of inflating the value of the firm and a "wilful" effort to mislead.[ The Independent] Business Secretary Vince Cable pledged yesterday that the government would take a “greater interest” in take-overs of UK companies and also fight the City’s “quick buck mentality”. Endorsing Professor John Kay’s independent review of UK equity markets, Cable said the coalition was also working to scrap companies’ quarterly reporting that he said encouraged greater focus on short-term returns than long-term value. “Many of us feel that, in the past, our public companies and investors have focused on short-term profit at the expense of long-term value,” Cable said. “The behaviour of many banks in the run-up to the financial crisis is an extreme example of this quick buck mentality, but there is a wider problem." [ The Scotsman] Communications giant Virgin Media was involved in a row over trade union recognition on Thursday after ending collective bargaining deals following a vote by employees. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) accused the firm of "stealing" trade union recognition from its staff after a referendum showed 52% in favour of the company's position. [ The Guardian] Energy firms will be allowed to triple the amount of money they add to customers' bills to pay for renewable power, nuclear and other environmental measures, under plans to be announced by the government next week. The deal over a new energy bill, struck after weeks of sometimes bitter negotiations between the coalition partners, will mean the total amount energy suppliers can add to domestic and business bills will rise from £2.35bn this year to nearly £10bn at the end of this decade. Adjusting for inflation that would be worth £7.6bn in today's prices, an increase of nearly three times. [ The Guardian] |
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