FTSE 100 movers: China data gives boost to miners

The FTSE 100 surged on Tuesday, rising 102.51 points (1.77%) to 5,882.43 by mid-afternoon.

The market was led by the miners, after worse-than-expected economic growth data from one of the world’s largest commodities consumers raised hopes of further stimulus measures.

China’s gross domestic product rose 6.8% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago, weakening from the previous quarter’s 6.9%. Analysts had expected GDP to remain unchanged from the third quarter and the government is targeting 7% growth. “There is also the fact that there is still plenty of scope for fiscal and monetary stimulus to plug any gaps that appear in the coming years during this period of transition, which occurs at a time when the country is also trying to liberalise its markets, something that has faced many challenges already and will likely continue to do so this year,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda. The news sent miners Glencore, Anglo American, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto up, helping them to claw back some of the month’s losses.

Prudential investors were happy with news ahead of an investor conference today that its estimated Group Solvency II surplus at 30 June 2015 was £9.2bn, a solvency ratio of 190%. “Our Solvency II outcome confirms the strength of the Group's capital position and cash generative nature of our businesses,” said group chief executive Mike Wells.

The group also announced that John Foley has been appointed as permanent chief executive of the group’s UK and Europe division. He had stepped into the role as an interim measure in October last year, and was previously Group Investment Director. He also held a number of senior roles since joining the FTSE 100 company in 2000, and prior to that was working at National Australia Bank as General Manager, Global Capital Markets.

And Lloyds Banking Group rounded out the top 10 after Barclays said in a note it was confident that the bank, which it rated at ‘overweight’, would pay both ordinary and special dividends this year.

“But [we] recognise that there is debate amongst investors on the scale and timing here with concerns around Basel IV, PPI claims and the UK government's planned retail offering as potential reasons for not paying out all of our estimated 3.6p per share surplus over a 13% CET1 ratio as a special with FY15 results,” the note said.

The blue-chip market only had two fallers by mid-afternoon Tuesday – Tesco and BAE Systems. The latter fell after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to ’underperform’ from ‘neutral’, saying it was not the bank’s preferred defence name, particularly after its recent strong run.

It said given the current backdrop of heightened security threats and questions on economic growth, defence stocks appear attractive in principle, which is a positive for BAE. However, Credit Suisse said it prefers outperform-rated Thales, which it said offers more attractive prospects than BAE Systems if the latter cannot leverage its historical position in Saudi Arabia for more orders. The bank said exposure to the US and a weakening pound are supportive to the stock, adding that the weakening sterling is also boosting its US sales and profits translated back into sterling.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Glencore (GLEN) 84.40p 12.31%
Anglo American (AAL) 256.70p 10.34%
Old Mutual (OML) 160.70p 5.86%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 642.00p 5.45%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,226.00p 4.70%
Prudential (PRU) 1,409.50p 4.68%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 1,702.50p 4.29%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 232.80p 4.11%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,952.00p 3.61%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 66.24p 3.56%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Tesco (TSCO) 160.30p -0.77%
BAE Systems (BA.) 506.50p -0.49%
Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 301.90p -0.00%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 404.60p 0.07%
SABMiller (SAB) 4,131.00p 0.19%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 3,575.50p 0.21%
SSE (SSE) 1,418.00p 0.35%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,107.00p 0.36%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 240.50p 0.42%
Pearson (PSON) 695.00p 0.43%