London close: Investors play it safe ahead of Fed meeting

The selling pressure let up ahead of the start of a two-day policy meeting from the US Federal Reserve, with some investors braced in case the post-meeting statement sprang any surprises.

The FTSE 100 finished the session higher by 0.77% to the 6,555.28 mark, alongside a similar bounce in the main European equity benchmarks.

Nevertheless, some experts – but certainly not all - pointed out that investors should probably not hope for too much on this occasion.

Bill Hubard, chief economist at Bankor, for one, pointed out how in previous meetings the Fed had, in his understanding, indicated it did not want markets to become too complacent by flagging up possible moves in rates too far in advance, especially so the first hike.

The minutes of the April FOMC showed that “most participants” decided that “the timing of the first increase in the target range for the federal funds rate would appropriately be determined on a meeting-by-meeting basis and would depend on the evolution of economic conditions and the outlook”, Hubard explained.

Acting as a backdrop, the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Composite Index closed 1.68% lower on Tuesday at 3,663.002 following close on the heels of another 8.5% drop on Monday, partly as a result of confusing – and later denied by officials in Beijing - reports that policymakers might already be dialling back their policy support for stockmarkets.

Nonetheless, economists continued to wax optimistic on the outlook for China, with those at RBS reassuring clients that “monetary and fiscal easing should help China manage a controlled slowdown.”

However, the recent drop in the commodities space had unnerved many observers.

The pace of growth in Britain’s economy picked up in the second quarter to a 0.7% quarter-on-quarter clip, as expected by most analysts, following a rise of 0.4% in the first three months of the year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Nonetheless, economists Fabrice Montagne and Andrzej Szczepaniak at Barclays were sceptical, telling clients they would “not recommend drawing excessively strong conclusions from today’s release.”

Not only were the data prone to large revisions, one needed to factor in recent slowing in the labour market, more constrained household finances and greater uncertainty for companies ahead of the EU-referendum too.

RSA and Domino’s Pizza lead gains

Shares in RSA Insurance rocketed after Zurich Insurance confirmed that it was considering a bid for the company. Stock in Zurich Insurance was trading down, however.

Shares in fast food chain Domino's Pizza said system sales were up 14% for the half, to £426.7m from £375.0m. Domino's Pizza posted strong like-for-like sales up 10% to £378.8m from £343.4m, and boosted basic earnings per share up 32% from 11.6p to 15.3p.

After Royal Mail shares were hit by accusations of breaching competition law by regulator Ofcom, broker RBC Capital Markets held onto its 'underperform' rating and target price of 475p. Ofcom's provisional view was that RMG has "breached competition law by engaging in conduct that amounted to unlawful discrimination" against postal operators competing in letter delivery.

ITV was also on the front foot after it lifted its interim dividend by 36% and said group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 24% to £400m.

Oil giant BP shook off early losses to trade higher. Although the company’s second-quarter profit fell short of expectations, analysts said that in many aspects, this was not surprising given the sharp drop in the oil price. In addition, they were encouraged that BP is taking steps in the right direction by cutting capital expenditure.

Drug developer Hikma Pharmaceuticals signed a deal to buy two firms from Boehringer Ingelheim in transactions worth a total of $2.25bn. FTSE 100 listed Hikma planned to buy Roxane Laboratories and associated company Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane in a cash and shares deal that would make Hikma the sixth biggest company by revenue in the US generics market.

Melrose Industries rocketed 15% after saying it has entered into an agreement to dispose of its Elster business to Honeywell International for a cash consideration of £3.3bn and announcing plans to return over £2bn to shareholders.

Clothing retailer Next raised its sales and profit guidance for the year as warmer weather at the end of the season boosted second-quarter sales. The company raised its full-year pre-tax profit guidance to between £805m and £845m from a previous range of £785m to £835m and lifted its sales guidance range to between 3.5% and 6% from previous guidance of between 1.5% and 5.5%.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,141.84 +0.15%
FTSE 100 6,555.28 +0.77%
FTSE 250 17,387.89 +0.70%

FTSE 100 - Risers
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 518.50p +18.43%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,321.00p +11.59%
GKN (GKN) 316.60p +7.32%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,848.00p +3.75%
Glencore (GLEN) 212.55p +3.38%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 367.50p +3.17%
Anglo American (AAL) 796.60p +3.11%
Next (NXT) 7,705.00p +2.73%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 415.90p +2.69%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 364.90p +2.50%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Royal Mail (RMG) 486.70p -3.43%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,038.00p -2.08%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 179.60p -0.99%
Tesco (TSCO) 212.40p -0.89%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 987.00p -0.85%
Centrica (CNA) 271.40p -0.84%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,768.00p -0.69%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,170.00p -0.49%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,752.50p -0.40%
National Grid (NG.) 832.70p -0.36%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 415.00p +10.84%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 887.50p +10.45%
Drax Group (DRX) 277.40p +9.86%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 278.90p +9.63%
Lonmin (LMI) 59.10p +7.85%
Informa (INF) 576.50p +6.27%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 168.00p +6.19%
NMC Health (NMC) 871.00p +4.56%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 294.00p +4.14%
Beazley (BEZ) 341.40p +3.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Renishaw (RSW) 1,964.00p -8.18%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 223.00p -5.75%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,050.00p -2.96%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,650.00p -2.94%
Saga (SAGA) 208.50p -2.07%
Pace (PIC) 355.10p -1.99%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 966.00p -1.93%
AL Noor Hospitals Group (ANH) 934.00p -1.68%
Allied Minds (ALM) 482.60p -1.67%
Hays (HAS) 164.70p -1.55%