Morning Market, Thursday 29th May 2008
The FTSE 100 was up this morning, around 55 points at 6,125, whislt the FTSe 250 was up 95 poinst at 10,152.
Over the pond, the DJI closed last night at 12,594.03, up 45.68 on the day, whilst the S&P500 closed up 5.49 points at 1,390.84, and the Nasdaq up 5.46 points at2,486.70. It seems US durable goods figures were better than expected. Today in the US we see the GDP figures for the 1st quarter. a 1% figure is expected, up from 0.6%.
In the Far East today, the Nikkei 225 closed up 415.03 points at 14,124.47, whilst in Hong Kong the Hang Seng recently closed up 134.48 points higher at 24,383.99.
Back here in London, Anto’s results are due this morning, and are expected to be ahead of exepctations, giving the stock a 13p lift to 710p, Revenue should be around the US$830.4m mark. Peer Rio, meanwhile, was up 125p at 6,262p, after saying it expects 8.6% compound growth moving forward for the next 7 years. It added that reckons it will be able to take advantage of an expected doubling of world demand for its metals and minerals over the next 15 years. Other peers also rallied. BHP was up 37p at 1,996p, ENRC up 25p at 1,435p, Xstrata up 43p at 4,059p, and Lonmin up 40p at 3,388.
On to oil, where world oil prices rfell back but remained above US$130 bbl last night in the Far East’s trading. The oilheavyweights were up again, with BP up 7p at 613p, RD Shell up 22p at 2,176, and Tullow Oil up 22p at 920p. BG Group also had a good start, up 10p at 13-quid, after the FT said that BG will up its offer for Australia’s second largest retail energy supplier.
On to financials, where Man Group was up 17p at 606p after reporting a 60% increase in profits, adding that this year had started strong too. Credit Suisse jumped in by reitereating its ‘outperform’ stance and rising its target to 670p, up 30p from its 640p previous.
A JP Morgan downgrade caused insurance giant Standard Life to fall 2p to 240p after the broker said UK sales look like suffering. It gave a taget of 230p, down 15p.
The banks were under pressure as well, with HBOS down 7p at 424p, Lloyds TSB down 5p at 380p, Barclays down 4p at 383p, and RBS down 1.5p at 236.5p. ABN Amro said that the sector is due for a strong reversal in both earnings yield and leverage, compared to previous years.
