London midday: FTSE 100 on track for fourth straight loss

17th Apr 2013 11:39

A number of heavyweight stocks going ex-dividend assured that London's FTSE 100 index was in the red for a fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, while concerns over the global economy continued to weigh on sentiment.Global growth fears have hit markets over the last few days after a surprise slowdown was reported in China in the first quarter. These concerns were compounded yesterday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revised lower its forecasts for global economic growth, cutting estimates for the UK, US, Eurozone and China.Unconfirmed rumours of a German credit rating downgrade were also giving investors more reasons to be cautious this morning, as well as the UK unemployment rate rising from 7.8% to 7.9% in the three months to February.The minutes from the latest Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting released today showed that policymakers were split six to three in favour of maintaining the asset purchase programme at £375bn, as expected. They voted unanimously to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5%.For Barclays Research, today's minutes confirm its view that the redrafted MPC remit included in the March Budget does not give the committee greater leeway to focus on stimulating the economy. In that same vein, analysts point out that should activity stabilise, afterwards returning to growth while inflation stays high, then a majority of the MPC will not vote to increase quantitative easing (QE). However, they said that "it would take relatively little bad news on demand to propel the committee into a further QE push".US indices performed well last night after Goldman Sachs joined a growing list of companies to report better-than-expected earnings. Banking peers Citigroup, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have all beaten forecasts with their first-quarter results in the past week. Futures Stateside are pointing to a weak start ahead of earnings from Bank of America ahead of the opening bell.FTSE 100: Ex-div stocks provide a dragA number of heavyweight constituents went ex-dividend this morning, meaning that new investors will not be able to get their hands on the latest dividend payments. These companies included: ARM, BAE Systems, BG Group, Capita, Fresnillo, Petrofac, Resolution, Smith & Nephew, Tullow Oil and Wood Group.Iconic British luxury brand Burberry gained after reporting a 9.0% rise in underlying revenue in the second half as strong growth in Retail continued to offset a weaker performance in Wholesale.BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest miners, fell despite confirming that it was on track to hit full-year targets despite a lacklustre quarter.Tesco was also lower after posting its first decline in annual profits in two decades. The supermarket giant reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £3.5bn in the year to February 23rd 2013, a 10.7% fall from the £3.92bn the previous year.Financial services group Hargreaves Lansdown was making gains after saying that assets under administration reached record levels in the last three months as investor confidence continues to improve.FTSE 250: Hikma goes ex-div, decides not to sell injectablesHikma Pharmaceuticals was a heavy faller today after going ex-dividend, along with others including Chemring, Rentokil, Taylor Wimpey and Spirax-Sarco Engineering. Hikma also announced that it has decided not to sell its global injectables business despite significant interest.Hochschild Mining fell after reporting a fall in silver production and sales for the first quarter. Silver production came to 4.3m ounces in the three months to March 31st, down from 4.77m in the previous quarter and 4.76m a year earlier. Petra Diamond was heading the other way after discovering a 25.5 carat blue diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The rare stone is considered to be a high quality gem diamond of top colour. FTSE 100 - RisersBurberry Group (BRBY) 1,320.00p +4.27%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 936.50p +4.06%ARM Holdings (ARM) 890.50p +2.59%Carnival (CCL) 2,291.00p +1.73%Centrica (CNA) 381.40p +1.36%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,759.00p +1.21%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 252.40p +1.16%Diageo (DGE) 1,983.00p +1.15%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,127.00p +1.08%BT Group (BT.A) 277.20p +1.02%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 1,088.00p -6.29%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 258.70p -6.27%Evraz (EVR) 157.30p -5.18%BAE Systems (BA.) 375.60p -3.72%Polymetal International (POLY) 719.50p -3.29%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,297.00p -3.21%Tesco (TSCO) 372.50p -3.21%BG Group (BG.) 1,047.00p -2.97%Prudential (PRU) 1,026.00p -2.56%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,158.00p -2.53%FTSE 250 - RisersSpirent Communications (SPT) 126.90p +3.34%Savills (SVS) 525.50p +2.64%Laird (LRD) 212.60p +2.46%Marston's (MARS) 135.30p +2.19%Synthomer (SYNT) 182.60p +2.18%St James's Place (STJ) 494.40p +1.79%Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 622.50p +1.72%Rank Group (RNK) 157.60p +1.68%Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) 548.00p +1.67%Premier Farnell (PFL) 205.00p +1.49%FTSE 250 - FallersFerrexpo (FXPO) 163.50p -5.82%Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 935.00p -5.08%Perform Group (PER) 473.50p -4.61%SVG Capital (SVI) 369.40p -4.50%Lonmin (LMI) 263.10p -4.22%Beazley (BEZ) 204.80p -3.67%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 333.90p -3.41%BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 489.00p -2.88%SDL (SDL) 408.00p -2.83%Mondi (MNDI) 837.00p -2.73%BC