London midday: Global growth fears weigh on stocks

13th Aug 2012 11:40

- Mood dampened by slowdown in Japan, China- Germany could block aid to Greece- Summer rally loses momentumUK stocks were broadly unchanged by Monday lunchtime as the recent rally in global equity markets began to fade with worries about Asian economic growth weighing on sentiment. The Japanese economy grew by just 0.3% in the second quarter on the back of weak consumer spending. Annualised growth was just 1.4% in the April-June period, well below the 5.5% growth the previous quarter and under the 2.3% expansion expected. However, the poor data has increased speculation that the Bank of Japan would step up with policy easing.China was also providing some concern on markets today after Bank of America Merrill Lynch lowered its 2012 gross domestic product growth estimate for the world's second-largest nation from 8% to 7.7%. The US investment bank is the latest in a string of brokerages to reduce its growth forecasts for China.Global indices have been creeping high in recent weeks on the back of hopes that Eurozone officials will act to stem the crisis, after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi promised to do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro". Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said this morning that "we could see [stocks] pare some of these gains over the coming weeks, as we wait for further details on the kind of assistance Spain will request to bring their bond yields down to sustainable levels."In other news, Michael Fuchs, the deputy head of Angela Merkel's CDU party, said at the weekend that Germany will block new aid to Greece if it's not happy with the Troika's findings. "You can quote me: even if the glass is half-full, that is not enough for a new aid package...Germany cannot and will not agree to that," he said. FTSE 100: StanChart continues to reboundUnder-fire banking group Standard Chartered was a high riser as it continues to recover from its recent sell-off. Shares were trading around the 1,345p mark this morning, but still well off from the 1,567p level reached on August 3rd, the day before it was revealed that the lender had engaged in illegal transactions with the Iranian government. The lender is now in talk with with New York state regulators over how much a settlement would cost.Shares in oilfield services firm Petrofac dropped despite reporting a strong first half, driven by growth across all its markets. Earnings per share were up 32% to 94.8c, with pre-tax profits rising to $412.5m, from $300m the year before. "Even though earnings per share beat, the market hasn't been told anything positive it didn't already know. Some analysts are citing the number of delayed contracts awarded in Onshore Engineering and Construction as a reason to temper FY'13 outlook," said trader David White from SpreadEX. Oil giant BP was slightly lower after announcing the sale of its Sunray and Hemphill gas processing plants in Texas for $227.5m. Resource peers Vedanta, Xstrata and Kazakhmys were also out of favour due to concerns over global economic growth. Meanwhile, Costa owner Whitbread snakes after Deutsche Bank downgraded its rating on the stock to 'hold'. FTSE 250: Michael Page and MITIE provide a drag Recruitment firm Michael Page fell after its profits took a tumble as market conditions worsened in the second quarter; things are not looking much brighter for the second half of the 2012 either. ??Outsourcing and energy services group MITIE was lower despite saying it has made a 'good start' to its financial year with 87% of budgeted revenues for the year having already been secured. ??Telecoms group Colt edged higher after having beefed up its presence in the small to medium enterprises (SME) market with a bolt-on acquisition of a UK cloud computing specialist. FTSE 100 - RisersStandard Chartered (STAN) 1,346.50p +1.51%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 220.00p +1.06%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,376.00p +0.88%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 325.80p +0.77%Kingfisher (KGF) 290.00p +0.69%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 353.00p +0.68%Schroders (SDR) 1,416.00p +0.64%Land Securities Group (LAND) 803.00p +0.63%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 752.00p +0.60%Tesco (TSCO) 329.25p +0.58%FTSE 100 - FallersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,482.00p -5.42%Vedanta Resources (VED) 977.50p -1.96%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 735.50p -1.41%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,038.00p -1.33%Whitbread (WTB) 2,122.00p -1.30%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,966.00p -1.16%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,120.00p -1.15%WPP (WPP) 854.00p -1.10%Wolseley (WOS) 2,458.00p -1.09%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 421.40p -1.06%FTSE 250 - RisersTalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 186.50p +3.73%Ruspetro (RPO) 153.80p +3.22%International Personal Finance (IPF) 303.60p +2.46%Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,300.00p +1.96%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 160.90p +1.96%Rank Group (RNK) 122.00p +1.67%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 589.50p +1.64%Home Retail Group (HOME) 84.40p +1.63%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,270.00p +1.60%Beazley (BEZ) 167.50p +1.52%FTSE 250 - FallersAZ Electronic Materials SA (DI) (AZEM) 303.00p -3.66%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 99.10p -3.32%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 503.50p -3.08%Petropavlovsk (POG) 440.20p -2.83%Hunting (HTG) 782.00p -2.68%IP Group (IPO) 138.00p -2.68%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 37.17p -2.65%Lonmin (LMI) 737.00p -2.12%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 162.50p -2.11%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 187.40p -1.94%BC