London midday: Stocks rise as markets await Fed policy decision

18th Jun 2013 11:20

Markets were issuing decent gains on Tuesday morning with investors choosing to be optimistic ahead of the all-important monetary policy meeting in the States which concludes tomorrow.Helping sentiment this morning was Germany's closely-watched ZEW survey which showed that the economic sentiment index rose from 36.4 to 38.5 in June, ahead of the 38.1 forecast. The current situation index however unexpectedly fell from 8.9 to 8.6.In other economic news, UK inflation data this morning was stronger-than-expected in May, with consumer prices rising at an annual rate of 2.7%, up from 2.4% in April and above the 2.6% estimate. The news will likely dampen any hopes for additional near-term quantitative easing under new Bank of England Governor Mark Carney.Later on in the States will be America's own consumer-price inflation data for May, as well as building permits and housing starts figures.Nevertheless, the main focus of markets this week will likely be on the Federal Reserve and Chairman Ben Bernanke as investors eagerly wait for indications of when the bank's 'exit strategy' from stimulus will begin."After Bernanke's testimony and the Fed meeting minutes on May 22nd, risk assets have declined sharply while bond yields have spiked and volatility has shot through the roof," said Market Strategist Ishaq Siddiqi from ETX Capital."It's likely that Bernanke will spend most of the press conference downplaying market fears in a dovish manner and hopefully offering a time-line of when the Fed will start to scale back quantitative easing," he said.FTSE 100: easyJet, Whitbread and financials leading the riseAirline group easyJet was flying high this morning after buying 100 New Generation A320 aircraft from Airbus for delivery from 2017 to 2022. The low-cost airline announced that the aircraft was sourced at highly attractive price and greater percentage discount to list price than the company's existing Airbus contract. Espirito Santo, Deutsche Bank and Panmure Gordon all reiterated their 'buy' ratings for the stock this morning.UK hotel and restaurant group Whitbread also gained after reporting a 3.1% rise in total like-for-like sales for the 13 weeks to May 30th, as strong growth at Costa outweighed a more subdued performance elsewhere.Financial stocks were performing well this morning with RSA Insurance and HSBC leading the way after broker upgrades. Credit Suisse raised RSA to 'outperform', saying that a "multitude of factors that have weighed on returns at RSA will abate over the next two years, leading to an upswing in reported earnings." Meanwhile, Citigroup upped its rating for HSBC to 'buy' following its recent underperformance.Sector peers Standard Life, Barclays and StanChart were also in demand.Temporary power and temperature control supplier Aggreko was a heavy faller after reporting mixed trading in its two main divisions in the first half - the Local business continues to grow strongly while Power Projects growth was subdued.Security solutions group G4S was also in the red after Goldman Sachs reiterated its 'conviction sell' recommendation and cut its target price for the stock on the back of emerging-market FX weakness.FTSE 250: SDL hammered after profit warningTranslation and communications software firm SDL plummeted after cutting its outlook for the current financial year following a first-half performance that was below management expectations. Profit before tax and amortisation is now expected to be within the range £15-20m in 2013 compared to £35.5m in 2012.Defence technology group Chemring was also lower after saying that first-half revenue was hurt by reduced demand from its Countermeasures and Pyrotechnics & Munitions operations. The company also warned that markets are likely to remain challenging into 2014, particularly in the US.FTSE 100 - RiserseasyJet (EZJ) 1,295.00p +3.43%Standard Life (SL.) 377.20p +2.81%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 121.00p +2.72%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 698.30p +2.47%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,479.00p +2.42%Barclays (BARC) 303.75p +2.39%Croda International (CRDA) 2,445.00p +2.34%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 267.50p +2.10%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,315.00p +2.10%BT Group (BT.A) 318.30p +2.02%FTSE 100 - FallersEurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 233.30p -2.91%Evraz (EVR) 116.00p -2.68%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,068.00p -2.64%Aggreko (AGK) 1,754.00p -2.07%Polymetal International (POLY) 638.50p -1.84%G4S (GFS) 241.10p -1.51%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,183.00p -1.00%Diageo (DGE) 1,885.00p -0.79%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,801.50p -0.77%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,703.00p -0.76%FTSE 250 - RisersAveva Group (AVV) 2,388.00p +6.04%Supergroup (SGP) 722.50p +5.47%FirstGroup (FGP) 96.60p +5.00%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 126.60p +4.80%Telecity Group (TCY) 959.00p +4.07%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 233.00p +3.79%Lonmin (LMI) 292.70p +3.32%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 388.50p +2.89%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 305.30p +2.76%Hiscox Ltd (HSX) 548.00p +2.72%FTSE 250 - FallersSDL (SDL) 260.00p -32.73%Chemring Group (CHG) 250.60p -5.68%Greene King (GNK) 769.00p -3.63%Petropavlovsk (POG) 141.50p -3.35%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 205.60p -3.06%NMC Health (NMC) 315.20p -2.35%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,844.00p -2.33%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 126.00p -2.10%Home Retail Group (HOME) 129.40p -1.97%Rank Group (RNK) 150.10p -1.90%