London midday: UK stocks trim gains as miners decline

UK stocks had pared gains and were trading more or less flat by Monday lunchtime as investors showed caution ahead of a busy week.

London’s FTSE 100 was up just 0.1% at 6,558 by noon, having pulled back after reaching an intra-day high of 6,589.20 early on as mining stocks extended losses.

Monday’s calendar was pretty quiet in terms of data - US markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr Day - with a number of key economic figures and macro events due out in the coming days.

The European Central Bank (ECB) meeting on Thursday will undoubtedly garner the most attention with policymakers widely expected to implement full-blown quantitative easing (QE) with the purchase of government bonds, after the Eurozone fell into deflation last month.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank said the ECB meeting could be “monumental”: “The big debate in the market as the decision nears will probably be based around whether it would be more positive to see a bigger size of QE announced but with each member central bank technically responsible for the losses or a smaller size where any future losses were fully mutualised.”

Aside from the ECB, a barrage of economic data from China will be released on Tuesday, including growth estimates, industrial production and retail sales. There is speculation that Premier Li Keqiang could lower the 2015 forecast for expansion after being cited as saying that China’s economy faces significant downward pressure this year.

Stocks in Shanghai plunged 8% on Monday with shares in the financial sectors faring the worst after securities regulators said many brokerage firms had broken stricter rules on margin trading. Margin finance involves the borrowing of money to buy stocks, something which the government is concerned will lead to instability after record margin lending resulted in a 63% surge in equity values over the past six months.

Meanwhile, a general election in Greece looms with politicians entering their final week of campaigning, as the support for anti-austerity party Syriza continues to grow.

Mining stocks drop

Stocks in the heavyweight mining sector were lower, including Rio Tinto, Glencore, BHP Billiton and Anglo American. Steel-maker Evraz was also in the red after saying 2014 consolidated steel production and output of steel products, net of rolled volumes, decreased by 4% and 5%, respectively.

Tesco was among the best performers after Morgan Stanley hiked its target price for the supermarket stock to 260p from 155p.

Pub operator and brewer Greene King was flat after saying that while sales over the key Christmas period were “encouraging”, trading before and after the festive season was mixed.

Infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty rose after having been appointed sole contractor to a new £1.5bn framework that will run until February 2019. The national framework is operated by public sector-owned environment specialist Scape Group.

Takeover target Afren was weaker as investors nervously awaited a deadline for Nigerian group Seplat to return to the table with a possible offer. The latter approached the FTSE 250 oil group last month about a potential tie-up and has until 17:00 on Monday to ‘put up or shut up’, according to takeover rules.

techMARK 3,010.61 +0.52%
FTSE 100 6,557.61 +0.11%
FTSE 250 15,996.49 +0.46%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,111.00p +3.16%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 440.80p +3.11%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,826.00p +2.35%
Tesco (TSCO) 224.00p +2.26%
Kingfisher (KGF) 325.00p +2.20%
CRH (CRH) 1,541.00p +2.19%
GKN (GKN) 361.70p +1.63%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,935.00p +1.49%
Barclays (BARC) 227.70p +1.49%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,767.00p +1.45%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,026.00p -1.82%
Glencore (GLEN) 249.30p -1.29%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,851.50p -1.28%
SSE (SSE) 1,478.00p -1.27%
Intu Properties (INTU) 341.10p -1.13%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,372.50p -1.12%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,087.50p -1.09%
BP (BP.) 409.45p -0.94%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 955.50p -0.93%
3i Group (III) 432.70p -0.83%

FTSE 250 - Risers
esure Group (ESUR) 231.00p +3.59%
Premier Oil (PMO) 145.30p +3.34%
Hunting (HTG) 458.60p +3.27%
Playtech (PTEC) 671.50p +3.23%
Hays (HAS) 148.80p +2.98%
Marston's (MARS) 145.00p +2.91%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 70.45p +2.85%
AO World (AO.) 264.20p +2.80%
Carillion (CLLN) 339.80p +2.66%
SIG (SHI) 170.60p +2.65%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Afren (AFR) 27.67p -6.83%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 162.80p -5.68%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 133.70p -4.77%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 392.80p -3.11%
Card Factory (CARD) 272.20p -2.61%
Derwent London (DLN) 3,118.00p -1.48%
FirstGroup (FGP) 102.30p -1.45%
Evraz (EVR) 150.40p -1.38%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 367.80p -1.34%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 310.50p -1.33%