London midday: Miners lead equities higher

UK equities edged higher on Monday, with miners leading the charge as investors shrugged off weak Chinese data.

China’s industrial output growth slowed to 5.4% year-on-year between January and February, missing analysts' estimates of 5.6% after an increase of 5.9% the prior month.

Retail sales growth in China cooled to 10.2% on an annual basis during the period, falling short of forecasts for a 10.8% rise after a 11.1% gain the previous month.

In contrast, the country’s fixed-asset investment growth accelerated to 10.2% year-on-year, beating forecasts of 9.5% and compared with 10% the prior period.

Japan enjoyed positive data with core machine orders rising 15% January from a month earlier, compared to December’s 4.2% increase and analysts’ estimates of 1.9%.

The Bank of Japan has started its two-day policy meeting with an announcement on its latest measures due on Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are also due to announce their policy decisions on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

The UK Budget on Wednesday is also set to be in focus.

“Monday is likely to be the calm before the storm as a dearth of corporate and economic data will see traders scratching around for a sense of direction ahead of this week’s UK budget and the FOMC’s interest rate decision,” said IG market analyst Alastair McCaig.

Meanwhile, oil prices declined as Iran’s oil minister reportedly said the country would not join a production freeze until its own output rose to 4m barrels a day.

At 1146 GMT, Brent crude fell 1.8% to $39.65 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate dipped 2.3% to $37.60 per barrel.

On the corporate front, mining stocks gained, including Anglo American and Glencore, as most metal prices rose.

Admiral slumped after Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC downgraded their stances on the stock.

NMC Health advanced as it reported a 46.7% jump in underlying full year profits of $150.3m on the back of a 36.8% rise in revenue to $880.9m.

Spire Healthcare was lower after announcing its chief executive Rob Roger was stepping down.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,166.73 0.44%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,691.99 0.58%
techMARK (TASX) 3,098.51 0.60%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 541.60p 5.04%
Glencore (GLEN) 148.75p 4.98%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 282.40p 4.48%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,829.00p 3.78%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,073.00p 3.19%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 480.70p 2.76%
GKN (GKN) 286.40p 2.43%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,410.00p 2.32%
Old Mutual (OML) 186.20p 2.31%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 181.70p 2.25%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Admiral Group (ADM) 1,868.00p -2.45%
Provident Financial (PFG) 3,028.00p -2.13%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,200.00p -1.98%
Aviva (AV.) 488.50p -1.39%
Centrica (CNA) 227.40p -1.04%
BP (BP.) 344.85p -1.02%
Fresnillo (FRES) 922.00p -0.81%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,659.00p -0.60%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,666.50p -0.60%
Barclays (BARC) 165.15p -0.51%

FTSE 250 - Risers

NMC Health (NMC) 952.50p 4.79%
Savills (SVS) 738.00p 4.61%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 270.40p 4.52%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 310.00p 4.34%
Renishaw (RSW) 1,839.00p 4.13%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 363.70p 4.03%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,569.00p 3.91%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 284.70p 3.53%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 425.20p 3.40%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,374.00p 3.39%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Stagecoach Group (SGC) 256.00p -6.36%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 253.70p -4.48%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 117.80p -2.64%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 328.80p -1.94%
William Hill (WMH) 372.40p -1.64%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 341.00p -1.45%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 490.10p -1.39%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 196.50p -1.16%
DFS Furniture (DFS) 311.60p -1.08%
P2P Global Investments (P2P) 925.50p -1.02%