London midday: Stocks steady ahead of US data

UK stocks were holding higher ahead of a week full of potential risk events.

Significantly, on Sunday Bloomberg reported that Libya was forced to declare “force majeure” at two of its ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which have a combined capacity to export 560,000 barrels of oil per day.

Somewhat ironically, that helped to steady nerves in the oil patch after another sharp drop in the price of crude last Friday and offset rather bearish remarks over the weekend by an official from a key oil producing nation.

The United Arab Emirates’ energy minister, Suhail Al-Mazrouei, said the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be willing to withstand a drop in the price of crude to $40 per barrel before contemplating the need for an emergency meeting.

Mazrouei added that “we need to wait for at least a quarter” before considering an emergency meeting.

As of 12:27 the FTSE 100 was rising by 18 points to 6,319.08 and front month Brent futures by 1.51% to hit $62.80 per barrel on the ICE.

That came after US stocks finished sharply lower last Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrials capping its largest weekly loss in three years, alongside a large drop in West Texas crude futures to below $60 per barrel.

Overnight, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan manufacturing sector index for the fourth quarter slipped to a reading of 12 from the previous month’s level of 13. Experts had expected it to remain unchanged.

Little economic data today, but markets to tread carefully

The Confederation of British Industry's industrial trends total orders index improved for a second month running to +5% for December, after having hit a 15-month low of -6% in October. That was slightly better than the +3% expected by economists.

Asking prices for homes in the UK dropped 3.3% month-on-month in December, to reach £258,424, their largest monthly fall ever, a survey from Rightmove revealed. Prices were left standing 7% higher on the year.

To take note of, the coming week is full of potential risk events, not least the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and the first round of the Greek presidential elections, both of which are scheduled for Wednesday.

Traders will likely be watching to see how the US Treasury market reacts should the Fed decide to rescind its pledge to maintain interest rates low for a considerable period of time after the end of quantitative easing.

BT still on the prowl

UK telecoms group BT could take a step forward in its bid to buy a mobile phone operator on Monday, according to a report. BT may announce exclusive talks with either EE or Telefonica's O2, news agency Bloomberg cited unidentified sources as saying.

LGO Energy’s share price rose over 20% higher on Monday morning after it announced that the firm’s Goudron well in Trinidad had attained a flow rate of 1,085 barrels of oil per day. The London based gas and oil producer reported that over the last 48 hours the well had flowed at an average rate of 1,104 barrels of oil per day. The initial open-hole flow rate calculated for the well exceeded 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

Building material group CRH lifted 12p to 1460p after agreeing to sell its clay and concrete businesses in Britain and its clay business in the US to funds managed by Bain Capital Europe. The transaction, worth £414m, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015, the company said, adding that it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Real estate investment trust Segro was 1.2p up at 371.5p as it agreed to sell a portfolio of six industrial estates to Orchard Street Investment Management for £113.8m. Segro said the portfolio of properties, all of which are located in the UK, generates a passing rent of £6.4m, rising to £7.4m on expiry of rent-free periods and allowing for rent guarantees, adding that price reflects a premium in excess of 10% compared to book value at 30 June.

Good weather helped baker Greggs to predict annual profits ahead of hopes, lifting it by 28.5p to 685p. Greggs said favourable trading with "generally helpful" weather enabled it to increase own shop like-for-like sales by 5.2% in the 24 weeks to 13 December.

Chemical firm Johnson Matthey gained 21p to 3222p after agreeing to sell its gold and silver refining business to Asahi Holdings for £118m in cash. The group said the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015. "The divestment of the Gold and Silver Refining business is in line with our long term strategy,” said group chief executive Robert MacLeod.

techMARK 2,864.78 +0.17%
FTSE 100 6,320.24 +0.31%
FTSE 250 15,458.25 +0.53%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,769.00p +4.12%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 379.90p +3.43%
Kingfisher (KGF) 323.90p +2.86%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 432.50p +2.59%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,622.00p +2.46%
BT Group (BT.A) 405.70p +2.09%
GKN (GKN) 331.30p +2.03%
Centrica (CNA) 270.80p +2.03%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 824.50p +1.98%
Aviva (AV.) 476.50p +1.82%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Sky (SKY) 885.00p -1.94%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,131.00p -1.65%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,503.00p -1.53%
Fresnillo (FRES) 721.50p -1.50%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,621.00p -1.16%
Glencore (GLEN) 285.05p -1.02%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 237.70p -0.79%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 696.00p -0.78%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,119.00p -0.75%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,354.50p -0.73%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Afren (AFR) 36.69p +6.53%
Soco International (SIA) 263.30p +5.96%
EnQuest (ENQ) 35.41p +4.70%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 119.40p +3.65%
Dignity (DTY) 1,834.00p +3.56%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 304.00p +2.95%
Essentra (ESNT) 754.00p +2.72%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,030.00p +2.49%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 2,483.00p +2.43%
Workspace Group (WKP) 710.00p +2.38%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 83.15p -8.93%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 52.75p -5.47%
RPS Group (RPS) 210.10p -4.67%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 238.30p -4.60%
Infinis Energy (INFI) 211.00p -3.87%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 239.90p -3.85%
Evraz (EVR) 125.90p -3.82%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 71.00p -2.74%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,895.00p -2.07%
Just Eat (JE.) 299.10p -1.84%