London close: FTSE wanders to positive close ahead of Fed minutes
Stocks in London wandered to a positive close on Wednesday as investors embraced a raft of corporate news, and as the market looked to this evening's Federal Reserve minutes release.
"'Off the lows' is about the best that can be said of a very dull session in London," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.
"Little did we know that the initial excitement of the day would fade within minutes, to be replaced with aimless drift," he said, noting the focus was now on the Fed minutes.
The FTSE 100 closed up 0.40% to 7,514.90, and the FTSE 250 edged higher 0.15% to 19,950.52. Although other European indices were mildly down, those on Wall St were making tentative early gains.
Crude oil prices were trading more or less sideways ahead of tomorrow's Opec meeting in Vienna and on hopes of the cartel extending production curbs by nine months and into 2018.
"The FTSE 100 stood out from a crowd of weaker performance across benchmarks in mainland Europe," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group.
"A lacklustre British pound which has struggled to build on its election gains in the last week softened the blow of a series of poorly-received corporate updates from the likes of Marks & Spencer and B&Q-owner Kingfisher," he added.
"Early alarm at China's debt downgrade by Moody's eased by the afternoon with China-sensitive mining stocks well off lows of the day." Gold, silver and copper prices remained depressed, however.
David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said the markets had not seen any major moves on Wednesday as dealers awaited the Fed minutes at 19:00 BST from earlier this month.
"Investors will use the update to try and determine how likely the Federal Reserve is to increase interest rates next month," said Madden in a statement.
Traders, said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam, had become increasingly convinced that there would be a US rate hike in June, the second this year, but questions are being asked about where the Fed will go from there.
In corporate news, Marks & Spencer reversed earlier losses to trade higher after it reported steady sales but a 64% plunge in profit for the year to 1 April after taking a £437.4m hit mainly from changes to its pension scheme, international stores, and UK head office.
BAE Systems was among the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 as UBS said the new US defence budget blueprint supported accelerated revenue growth for the company, with around 37% of its sales exposed to US defence.
Similarly, Severn Trent advanced after analysts at JP Morgan lifted their target price a day after the water company surprisingly upped its dividend.
Glencore confirmed it has been in talks with US grain trader Bunge over a potential merger with its agricultural arm, before righting itself later.
Kingfisher led the fallers after it said sales in the first three months of the year declined 0.6% due to weak French sales.
Mediclinic was under the weather as it posted a 25% jump in full-year pre-tax profit but cautioned that revenues in the Middle East will only rise marginally in the coming year.
Babcock lost ground despite reporting a rise in full-year pre-tax profit and revenue and lifting its dividend.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,514.90 0.40%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,950.52 0.15%
techMARK (TASX) 3,606.90 0.53%
FTSE 100 - Risers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,344.00p 3.31%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,173.00p 2.80%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,553.00p 2.49%
WPP (WPP) 1,701.00p 1.67%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,421.00p 1.64%
DCC (DCC) 7,520.00p 1.62%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 347.40p 1.55%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 393.40p 1.47%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,384.00p 1.46%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,741.00p 1.45%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kingfisher (KGF) 334.00p -7.02%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 813.00p -6.44%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,135.00p -1.45%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,127.00p -1.12%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 959.50p -1.03%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 854.50p -0.87%
CRH (CRH) 2,785.00p -0.85%
Next (NXT) 4,430.00p -0.81%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,087.00p -0.80%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,671.00p -0.54%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 342.00p 4.72%
SIG (SHI) 151.80p 4.69%
Sanne Group (SNN) 674.50p 3.77%
Ascential (ASCL) 350.70p 2.78%
ZPG Plc (ZPG) 367.90p 2.74%
National Express Group (NEX) 372.20p 2.56%
Britvic (BVIC) 720.50p 2.49%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 336.70p 2.34%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 436.50p 2.30%
Just Eat (JE.) 628.50p 2.20%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Acacia Mining (ACA) 305.00p -29.69%
Softcat (SCT) 419.00p -8.44%
Homeserve (HSV) 742.50p -4.50%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 276.40p -3.66%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 177.00p -3.23%
AO World (AO.) 142.00p -3.14%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 135.00p -2.95%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 615.00p -2.69%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 775.00p -2.45%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 620.50p -2.36%