London midday: BoE keeps rates steady as manufacturing data cheers markets

9th May 2013 11:41

London traded equities were just barely managing to hold steady come midday despite the much better-than-expected industrial production figures out for the UK and the positive results seen at Thursday´s auction of Spanish sovereign debt. Weighing on sentiment were the 'warning flags' which some observers raised about the most recent batch of data out of China - again overnight - and even Japan. Nevertheless, the fact remains that despite some investors´ qualms regarding the quality of the global equity 'rally' others are still quite positive. Hence, in a research note released yesterday Goldman Sachs´s chief market economist of Global Investment, Dominic Wilson, reportedly went over scenarios that could conceivably see the S&P 500 rise over the 2,000 point level, for example. As far as the aforementioned Chinese data is concerned, Thursday´s consumer price figures for the Asian giant showed rising - and greater than expected - inflationary pressures, which may impact negatively on expectations for the country´s monetary policy. However, at the wholesale level the numbers were likely to increase doubts over the production outlook, Nomura argued. "It also suggests the de-stocking process in the industrial sector is not over yet, which casts doubt on the consensus view of a GDP growth recovery in the second quarter," the Japanese broker´s economists added.In a similar vein, the FT Lex column was warning readers to take note of some of the different factors which may have distorted the latest Chinese trade data, released on Wednesday. These are the wide use of metal imports last year as collateral to obtain financing and the over-invoicing of export sales to Hong Kong so as to take advantage of the stronger Renminbi - as the Chinese Yuan is alternatively called. On a more positive note, the latest industrial production figures in the UK showed manufacturing output advancing at a 1.2% clip month-on-month in April, far outstripping the 0.3% rise which economists had pencilled in. Economists at Barclays Research highlighted how the manufacturing output figures showed an even split between domestic and overseas markets. They were encouraged by that, in so far as it is indicative of the view that "domestic demand may be solidifying while sales abroad are showing signs of improvement," they wrote to clients. The Bank of England´s Monetary Policy Commitee kept its main policy settings steady, as was expected. The main policy rate continued to stand at 0.50% and the size of its asset repurchsae program at £375bn.Today´s auction of Spanish Treasury was successful. Madrid raised a total of €4.57bn in medium to long-term debt at lower borrowing costs, topping its issuance target of €3.5 - €4.5bn in the first auction since the European Central Bank's (ECB) cut interest rates.Stateside investors were awaiting the latest data on initial weekly unemployment claims and wholesale inventories. At least two Fed speakers were also expected to take to the podium.Experian spearheads gains, but Canaccord Genuity not impressedIn UK company news, credit checking colossus Experian delivered full year results showing sales growth across all its global markets, with Latin and North America leading the way. Total group revenue came in at $4.7bn, compared to $4.5bn in 2012.However, analysts at Canaccord Genuity weighed in saying the company's stock is "expensive and increasingly risky", while recommending a 'sell' rating and target price of 898p.British Land has signed a deal with BT to enable its customers to access free Wi-fi at its shopping centres. It has also agreed to work with BT to find a solution to deliver a 'robust' Wi-fi offering at a number of its open air shopping parks.Morrison Supermarkets posted a 1.8% drop in like-for-like sales for the first quarter as the UK grocer invested in opening more convenience stores. The jump in sales, which excludes fuel, for the 13 weeks to May 5th beat analysts' expectations for a 2.0% decline and were up from the previous quarter's 4.1% drop. Nevertheless, Bank of America downgraded the company´s shares to neutral, even while at the same time increasing its target price from 284p to 304p. After today´s drop the shares are still up by 9.8% for all of 2013, although fast approaching important technical resistance levels. Unusually severe winter weather hit first quarter production at Eurasian Natural Resources' iron ore division and revenue decreased slightly when compared to the corresponding quarter of a year ago as a result of weaker commodity prices, the company warned.At least three large brokers have today lowered their price targets on shares of emerging market-focused lender Standard Chartered.FTSE 100 - RisersExperian (EXPN) 1,239.00p +5.72%IMI (IMI) 1,318.00p +3.13%Old Mutual (OML) 222.20p +3.11%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,276.00p +2.94%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 57.40p +2.35%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,434.00p +2.14%Rexam (REX) 519.50p +1.56%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 289.70p +1.51%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 812.00p +1.37%Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 354.70p +1.30%FTSE 100 - FallersMorrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 289.00p -2.50%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,587.00p -2.34%G4S (GFS) 254.10p -2.12%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 297.90p -1.81%Hammerson (HMSO) 534.50p -1.75%CRH (CRH) 1,361.00p -1.66%WPP (WPP) 1,104.00p -1.34%SABMiller (SAB) 3,607.00p -1.33%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,890.00p -1.15%Sage Group (SGE) 343.10p -1.12%FTSE 250 - RisersAnite (AIE) 127.40p +4.86%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 155.40p +3.60%Keller Group (KLR) 878.50p +3.29%Smith (DS) (SMDS) 246.60p +2.71%National Express Group (NEX) 213.60p +2.59%Renishaw (RSW) 1,697.00p +2.54%Investec (INVP) 493.90p +2.38%Spirent Communications (SPT) 136.20p +2.25%Ladbrokes (LAD) 204.40p +2.25%RPS Group (RPS) 230.20p +2.22%FTSE 250 - FallersOcado Group (OCDO) 200.00p -4.76%Victrex (VCT) 1,587.00p -4.51%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 131.70p -3.02%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 103.50p -2.63%CSR (CSR) 528.00p -2.49%Provident Financial (PFG) 1,647.00p -2.14%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 368.00p -2.02%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 212.20p -1.35%Savills (SVS) 593.50p -1.33%Restaurant Group (RTN) 475.70p -1.23%FTSE TechMARK - RisersPromethean World (PRW) 19.00p +10.14%CML Microsystems (CML) 420.00p +8.39%Parity Group (PTY) 44.00p +2.33%Gresham Computing (GHT) 81.75p +1.08%Innovation Group (TIG) 26.25p +0.96%NCC Group (NCC) 109.00p +0.93%Microgen (MCGN) 118.00p +0.85%Torotrak (TRK) 30.25p +0.83%Filtronic (FTC) 62.00p +0.81%Vectura Group (VEC) 93.25p +0.81%FTSE TechMARK - FallersAntisoma (ASM) 1.70p -5.56%Emblaze Ltd. (BLZ) 53.00p -3.64%Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 200.00p -2.44%Consort Medical (CSRT) 785.50p -1.81%Ricardo (RCDO) 379.50p -1.43%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 18.75p -1.32%Xaar (XAR) 522.00p -0.95%Vislink (VLK) 30.00p -0.41%Optos (OPTS) 157.50p -0.32%Sepura (SEPU) 109.25p -0.23%AB