Market overview: Stocks gains after MPC stays put

1630:Close Stocks registered slight gains led by Fresnillo. According to analysts at HSBC, the precious metals miner has excellent growth assets, which should allow it to generate strong cash flows in the medium-term. Stock in Tesco also outperformed, on the back of positive comments out of UBS. As expected, the MPC chose to keep its main monetary policy settings unchanged. However, following the release of today’s minutes analysts at ABN Amro and BNP Paribas pushed back their forecasts for the first interest rate hike from the Bank of England. FTSE 100 up 38.47 points to reach 6,374.82.

1454: Significant dividend yields, strong balance sheets (in many cases net cash), little sensitivity to commodity prices, geographical footprints almost entirely UK based, which means no EM exposure nor FX impact and strong industry dynamics driven by government support are some of the reasons which led analysts at Deutsche Bank to reiterate their positive stance on UK housebuilders. Their top picks in the sector are: Barratt, Bovis and Taylor Wimpey.

1453: A recent site visit to Fresnillo’s Mexican operations highlighted the quality of its assets and revealed they should be able to generate very string free cash-flow once they are fully up and running, HSBC says. The broker upped its target on the stock to 810p from 760p whilst reiterating his buy recommendation.

1451: ABN Amro pushes back BoE rate hike call to the third quarter of 2016 from the first quarter previously expected. Earlier in the session BNP Paribas moved back its own rate hike call to May 2016 from February.

1330: Three-month copper futures are declining by 1.7% to $5,148.50 per metric tonne on the LME.

1230: The European Central Bank reiterated that it would consider extending its asset purchase programme if the economic outlook worsened, according to minutes of the 2-3 September policy meeting on Thursday.

1200: The Bank of England kept all its main policy settings unchanged as expected.

0849: Stocks have started the day slightly lower despite overnight gains on Wall Street, as traders wait on the minutes of the latest policy decisions by the European Central Bank, US Fed and MPC. The latter may make for the most interesting read given they will be the most ‘real time’ of the three. The latest German exports data have surprised sharply to the downside. Analysts at both Goldman Sachs and HSBC on Thursday morning predicted the ECB would loosen monetary policy further. FTSE 100 down 23.34 points to 6,313.69.