London midday: Stocks drift amid avalanche of earnings

London stocks drifted modestly lower on Thursday as investors sifted through an avalanche of corporate news and digested the latest retail sales figures from the CBI and overnight minutes from the Federal Reserve.

At midday, the FTSE 100 was down 0.1% to 7,296.12.

UK retail sales rebounded slightly in February after slipping at the beginning of the year, according to the CBI's Distributive Trades Survey.

The survey showed a balance of 9% more retailers reporting a rise in sales volumes over those seeing falls, after the 8% decline in the previous report.

Looking to March sales, retailers expect volumes to rise again, albeit at a slightly slower pace.

CBI economist Ben Jones said the rebound suggested that some of the recent gloom about a slump in consumer demand at the start of 2017 may be overdone.

“However, retailers remain cautious about their prospects, expecting fairly tepid growth in sales volumes next month against a backdrop of rising inflation that is likely to erode households’ purchasing power through the course of the year," he added.

“As the impact of the weaker pound feeds through supply chains, retailers are trying to absorb some of the increase in their import costs through savings.”

Market participants were also mulling over the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting released late on Wednesday.

"Many participants expressed the view that it might be appropriate to raise the Federal Funds rate again fairly soon if incoming information on the labour market and inflation was in line with or stronger than their current expectations, or if the risks of overshooting the committee's maximum-employment and inflation objectives increased," the Fed said.

In corporate news, Barclays was in the black as it said pre-tax profits almost tripled to £3.2bn in 2016, and announced it would close its non-core business six months earlier than previously planned. Profits for 2016 were boosted as although revenues for the year fell 6% to £19.1bn, the FTSE 100-listed bank chopped its litigation and conduct costs down by two thirds to £1.4bn.

RSA Insurance was a high riser after posting a 25% jump in full-year operating profits to £655m as it lifted its annualised cost savings target for the third time to more than £400m from £350m.

Defence contractor BAE Systems was on the front foot after it reported a rise in full-year profit before tax, with revenue and order intake up as defence budgets recover.

Glencore rose after it said 2016 core profit increased 18% thanks to a rebound in raw material prices.

Morgan Advanced Materials pushed up as it said 2016 revenue rose despite challenging trading conditions in the second half of the year.

Paper manufacturer Mondi advanced as it posted a 6% rise in pre-tax profits to €843m (£despite revenues falling by 2% to €6.6bn.

Shopping centre owner Intu Properties rallied after it said full-year underlying earnings rose 7% for 2016 to £200m, primarily due to a 3.6% growth in like-for-like net rental income, which was in line with guidance.

Lloyds Banking Group edged higher after the government sold off a further chunk of shares in the bank,.

Inmarsat racked up healthy gains on the back of an upgrade to ‘outperform’ by Macquarie, but Halfords slumped as its rating was cut to ‘sell’ by Peel Hunt.

Utility services company Centrica was in the red despite posting a 4% rise in annual adjusted profit, while EasyJet, Rio Tinto and HSBC lost ground as their stock went ex-dividend.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,296.12 -0.08%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,697.90 0.11%
techMARK (TASX) 3,368.01 0.34%

FTSE 100 - Risers

RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 615.50p 6.67%
Intu Properties (INTU) 292.80p 6.32%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,894.00p 3.10%
Glencore (GLEN) 334.20p 2.59%
BAE Systems (BA.) 619.00p 2.23%
Barclays (BARC) 239.55p 1.87%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,877.00p 1.59%
Carnival (CCL) 4,353.00p 1.59%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 70.67p 1.39%
BT Group (BT.A) 331.05p 1.16%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

easyJet (EZJ) 918.00p -5.75%
Centrica (CNA) 226.30p -3.17%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,496.00p -3.10%
Capita (CPI) 546.50p -2.15%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 665.20p -2.13%
Royal Mail (RMG) 410.90p -1.51%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,629.00p -1.48%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 510.50p -1.26%
Kingfisher (KGF) 322.40p -1.23%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,821.00p -1.19%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 324.60p 8.49%
Cobham (COB) 116.90p 5.03%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 492.30p 4.74%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 167.40p 4.49%
Allied Minds (ALM) 387.00p 3.70%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 184.50p 3.07%
Card Factory (CARD) 258.80p 2.66%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 658.50p 2.65%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 189.80p 2.37%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,622.00p 2.32%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Halfords Group (HFD) 342.20p -4.09%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 858.00p -3.60%
Hunting (HTG) 540.00p -2.88%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 213.00p -2.47%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 302.90p -2.07%
IP Group (IPO) 167.80p -1.81%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,644.00p -1.79%
AO World (AO.) 148.90p -1.78%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,484.00p -1.59%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 222.40p -1.46%