London midday: Stocks flatline ahead of Fed minutes

Stocks were flatlining at the mid-point of the sessions, as investors braced for the release on Wednesday night of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting in October.

Since the last US jobs report some members - albeit not all - of the Federal Reserve's policy committee had sounded a more hawkish note, with some even hinting at a need for quicker than anticipated tightening.

Against that backdrop, as of 12:04 the Footsie was higher by 0.13 points at 6,268.67 while copper futures were edging slightly lower again, retreating by 80 US cents to stand $209.60 per pound on COMEX.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt was lower by five basis points to 1.93%, following a sale earlier in the day of £3.25bn in new debt of the same maturity by the Treasury.

Front month Brent crude futures were up by 1.9% to $44.43 per barrel out on the ICE.

Ahead of the Fed minutes, Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid wrote to clients saying: "Our colleagues in the US expect the minutes to be more balanced and much less committed to a December hike than what was inferred from the October communiqué. Clearly there is a lot of data left between now and the December 15th/16th meeting (including the November payrolls number) and while the latest employment report was encouraging, our colleagues note that growth and inflation numbers could be slipping given the latest retail sales and import price figures.

"They expect the probability of a December rate hike to fall closer to 50/50 over the next couple of weeks."

In timely fashion, but referring to Bank Rate, BoE Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent cautioned investors not to read too much into market pricing around the timing of the first hike in interest rates.

Three Fed speakers, including the presidents of the reserve banks of New York and Atlanta, Charles Dudley and Dennis Lockhart, respectively, were due to speak on a panel at around 13:00 GMT on the financial payments system.

They were to be followed later in the day by a speech from Dallas Fed president Steven Kaplan on economic conditions.

There were no major economic reports scheduled for release either in the UK, the Eurozone or US.

Antofagasta, Hunting pace gains thanks to broker commentary

Goldman Sachs upgraded Antofagasta to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’ with an unchanged price target of 440p, saying the risk/reward is now balanced. GS noted that since being added to the ‘sell’ list in February, the stock is down 35% versus the FTSE World Europe down 8.3%.

Oil service group Hunting also got a boost on Wednesday thanks to positive comments out of Goldman Sachs which reiterated its ‘buy’ rating on the stock, adding it to its ‘conviction list’ as it said the valuation offers a good buying opportunity.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it had overcome concerns raised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over environmental monitoring issues at its Portugal plant. The FDA in October 2014 sent the company a "warning letter" flagging issues the issues. In a statement, Hikma said it had received a further letter from the FDA "closing out" the warning letter from last year. On Wednesday, JP Morgan reiterated its overweight recommendation and 2,500p target on the shares.

Informa announced it is disposing of its two Dutch conference businesses. The FTSE 250 company announced its plans on Wednesday. The company will get rid of the two businesses based in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, as well as a small local publishing operation. The disposals are part of the company’s portfolio management strategy. It follows the recent disposal of its two Scandinavian businesses in Sweden and Denmark, as well as the previous sale of its Consumer Information business and the closure of operations in Johannesburg and Melbourne.

LondonMetric Property has acquired a 230,000 square ft distribution warehouse from a private vendor for £28.8m, which will be funded from existing resources, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.8%. The warehouse is situated in a prime distribution location on a 11.5 acre site in Reading, next to Junction 11 of the M4, and close to Tesco's 1mn sq ft regional hub. Other companies nearby include Royal Mail and Proctor & Gamble.

UK insurer Hastings Group Holdings, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in October, posted a 19% rise in operating profit for the first nine months of the year, as gross written premiums advanced.

Earnings at HICL Infrastructure were down significantly in the six months to 30 September 2015, the company reported on Wednesday morning. Its interim results shows income of £84.4m, down from £142.3m in the corresponding period last year. Profits were down too, from £132m last year to £71.7m for this period.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,273.54 0.08%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,070.81 -0.08%
techMARK (TASX) 3,147.84 0.08%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 493.60p 4.49%
Anglo American (AAL) 446.75p 3.65%
Glencore (GLEN) 92.02p 3.59%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,005.00p 2.66%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 254.30p 2.38%
Fresnillo (FRES) 686.00p 2.08%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,255.50p 1.87%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,644.00p 1.61%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,578.00p 1.48%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,659.50p 1.34%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 575.00p -2.79%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 998.00p -2.16%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,676.00p -1.99%
Next (NXT) 7,745.00p -1.46%
Intu Properties (INTU) 320.10p -1.36%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,485.00p -1.30%
British Land Company (BLND) 828.50p -1.19%
St James's Place (STJ) 963.50p -1.18%
CRH (CRH) 1,780.00p -1.17%
Kingfisher (KGF) 346.60p -1.11%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Hunting (HTG) 331.90p 5.37%
Polymetal International (POLY) 581.00p 3.94%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 92.05p 3.89%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 202.80p 3.42%
Evraz (EVR) 82.80p 2.99%
BBA Aviation (BBA) 195.50p 2.95%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 491.80p 2.87%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 569.00p 2.80%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 55.40p 2.59%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 800.00p 2.37%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Drax Group (DRX) 216.30p -4.50%
esure Group (ESUR) 245.20p -3.16%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 238.70p -2.37%
Countrywide (CWD) 402.30p -2.26%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 944.50p -1.97%
Halfords Group (HFD) 386.30p -1.90%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 270.00p -1.68%
Indivior (INDV) 197.00p -1.55%
Pace (PIC) 374.70p -1.42%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 98.55p -1.40%