London midday: Upbeat Eurozone data fails to boost stocks

Positive reports on Eurozone unemployment and inflation failed to lift London stocks at Friday’s midday mark.

The FTSE 100 was down 23.45 points to 6,372.71 at 1205 GMT.

The Eurozone unemployment rate fell to 10.8% in September from 10.9% in August while the consumer price index registered 0% year-on-year growth in October, up from a 0.1% decline the previous month.

Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said there was an “air of the bah-humbugs” despite the upbeat jobs and inflation data out in the Eurozone.

“Arguably the reason behind such a slip is that, whilst both figures are an improvement on last month, they aren’t good enough to justify their potentially ECB QE-injection delaying capacity,” he said.

Inflation remains well below the European Central Bank’s target of just below 2%, which has prompted President Mario Draghi to say the governing council will re-examine its €60bn monthly asset purchase programme at December’s policy meeting and consider extending it past September 2016.

Meanwhile on home turf, GfK’s UK consumer confidence index fell to 2 in October from 4 in September, missing expectations for a reading of 3.

“While consumer confidence remains elevated in light of improved real wage growth, it appears that consumers are starting to feel less confident about the future owing to global economic worries, with anecdotal evidence from the GfK press release suggesting that ‘good news on the domestic front is being tempered by concerns about our ability to shrug off the global downturn’,” said Barclays Research. “This may be weighed on further as the impact of fiscal austerity is felt and inflation picks up at the start of 2016.”

In Asia, the Bank of Japan kept policy unchanged, despite cutting its economic and inflation forecasts. The central bank lowered its inflation estimate for the current fiscal year from 0.7% to 0.1% and its growth outlook by 0.5 percentage points to 1.2%

Looking ahead to the afternoon session, personal spending and income figures are due along with the University of Michigan’s final estimate on consumer confidence and the Chicago purchasing managers’ index on manufacturing.

In company news, Royal Bank of Scotland declined after reporting a drop in pre-tax profit in the third quarter to o £295m from £3.2bn the previous year due to higher restructuring costs.

International Consolidated Airlines flew lower despite reporting a jump in third quarter profit. Pets at Home slumped as it reported an increase in first half sales but revealed weakness in the health and hygiene business.

Going the other way, mining stocks rebounded as gold and silver prices reversed the previous day’s declines. Anglo American and Rio Tinto were among the risers.

Elementis gained after saying full-year earnings should be in line with expectations despite a sales slowdown.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,372.36 -0.37%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,124.28 0.06%
techMARK (TASX) 3,077.37 -0.21%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 691.00p 1.77%
Glencore (GLEN) 112.65p 1.67%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 697.00p 1.46%
BAE Systems (BA.) 443.90p 1.12%
Anglo American (AAL) 542.80p 1.08%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 195.80p 1.03%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,620.00p 0.96%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,377.50p 0.85%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,918.00p 0.79%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,313.00p 0.70%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 574.50p -3.85%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 168.10p -1.98%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 315.60p -1.59%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,921.00p -1.54%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,898.00p -1.29%
Barclays (BARC) 234.20p -1.29%
Pearson (PSON) 864.50p -1.26%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 213.45p -1.23%
BP (BP.) 386.90p -1.23%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 266.30p -1.11%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Vectura Group (VEC) 177.70p 8.42%
Elementis (ELM) 237.50p 5.37%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 112.00p 3.90%
Lookers (LOOK) 174.60p 3.31%
Enterprise Inns (ETI) 107.70p 2.96%
National Express Group (NEX) 297.00p 2.77%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 93.55p 2.69%
SIG (SHI) 129.40p 2.29%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,835.00p 2.23%
P2P Global Investments C (P2P2) 979.00p 2.19%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Pets at Home Group (PETS) 289.40p -7.01%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 559.00p -5.89%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 335.00p -3.01%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,042.00p -2.16%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,992.00p -1.92%
DCC (DCC) 5,175.00p -1.90%
BTG (BTG) 555.00p -1.77%
Grainger (GRI) 246.60p -1.75%
Playtech (PTEC) 860.00p -1.49%
Hunting (HTG) 357.50p -1.43%