London open: EVRAZ and ENRC limit gains early on

11th Apr 2013 08:37

The FTSE 100 opened broadly flat on Thursday morning, with sharp falls by steel maker EVRAZ and diversified miner ENRC limiting gains, as investors paused for breath after three consecutive days of gains.Renewed optimism regarding the Chinese economy has driven markets higher in the past few days, along with aggressive monetary easing measures in Japan.Meanwhile, both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 on Wall Street surged to fresh all-time highs last night following the minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting. While some rate-setters called for the central bank to scale back its $85bn-a-month asset purchase programme soon, the meeting took place before the release of March's gloomy employment report. Subsequently, with just 88,000 jobs being added last month, well below the 190,000 increase expected, the consensus seems to be that the Fed cannot risk toning down its stimulus measures for some time yet.A positive start to US earnings season has also lifted sentiment over the last few days after aluminium producer Alcoa beat profit forecasts in the first quarter. Investors are now looking ahead to results from banking giants Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase due on Friday.As for today's session, the focus is likely to be on the monthly report from the European Central Bank and US jobless claims data due later today, which are expected to have fallen to 360,000 last week, from a surprise jump to 385,000 the week before.FTSE 100: EVRAZ and ENRC provide a dragSteel group EVRAZ dropped early on after saying that it has decided to forgo a final dividend for 2012 after suffering a 31% drop in earnings as metals prices fell.Mining peer ENRC was also a heavy faller on rumours that its Chairman Mehmet Dalman could resign over disagreements with other executives.Resource stocks on the whole were under pressure early on. Even Xstrata was registering losses despite announcing that its Koniambo Nickel project in New Caledonia has gone into production after producing its first metal this week, a key milestone for the $5.0bn greenfield project.Heading the other way was High Street department store M&S as a strong performance in its Food division offset a weak performance in General Merchandise (GM). Nevertheless, the 3.8% fall in like-for-like GM sales was still better than the 4.5% decline expected by analysts.FTSE 250: Ashmore surged as AuM increasesAsset management group Ashmore was a high riser early on after reporting that assets under management (AuM) increased by 9.4% in the third quarter as it attracted funds from government clients. Sector peer Man Group also rose as a change in its regulatory status meant a $250m reduction in its capital requirements with the FCA. FTSE 100 - RisersMarks & Spencer Group (MKS) 399.20p +4.01%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 424.40p +2.24%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,302.00p +1.72%Schroders (SDR) 2,180.00p +1.25%ITV (ITV) 125.10p +1.21%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,704.00p +1.12%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,111.00p +1.00%Sage Group (SGE) 339.40p +0.95%Compass Group (CPG) 824.00p +0.86%easyJet (EZJ) 1,099.00p +0.83%FTSE 100 - FallersEvraz (EVR) 187.50p -10.59%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 257.20p -4.71%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,283.00p -3.02%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,150.00p -2.46%Anglo American (AAL) 1,661.50p -1.98%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,836.00p -1.82%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,245.00p -1.78%Glencore International (GLEN) 351.20p -1.76%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,014.00p -1.74%Xstrata (XTA) 1,057.50p -1.58%FTSE 250 - RisersAshmore Group (ASHM) 395.70p +11.50%Man Group (EMG) 103.20p +5.63%WH Smith (SMWH) 774.00p +3.89%Hays (HAS) 97.00p +3.85%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,962.00p +3.43%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 117.40p +2.62%Chemring Group (CHG) 268.00p +2.49%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 248.60p +2.39%Bellway (BWY) 1,315.00p +2.26%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 101.90p +1.90%FTSE 250 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 385.40p -6.09%Petropavlovsk (POG) 198.60p -4.70%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 183.20p -4.68%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 45.18p -4.62%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 196.70p -2.62%Lonmin (LMI) 290.90p -2.35%Vesuvius (VSVS) 340.90p -1.93%BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 518.50p -1.33%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 29.81p -1.32%RPS Group (RPS) 263.20p -1.28%BC