London open: Japanese slowdown weighs on stocks

13th Aug 2012 08:16

- Petrofac leads fallers early on- Japanese GDP growth misses forecasts- Germany could block aid to GreeceThe FTSE 100 fell slightly in early trade on Monday on concerns over the global economy after Japanese growth figures disappointed.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."The poor Japanese growth figures do however encourage the BOJ to pump additional easing measures and this has helped Asian markets recover from lows," said Ishaq Siddiqi, a market strategist from ETX Capital.As for London markets, Siddiqi said that activity is expected to "pick up a touch" with some traders back at their desks after holidays. "However, we are at the height of the summer season so low volumes are likely to persist in the weeks ahead," he said.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: Petrofac disappoints with first-half resultsShares 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 Kazakhyms 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'.Heading the other way was under-fire banking group Standard Chartered as it continues to rebound from its recent falls. 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.FTSE 250: Michael Page, MITIE and Colt provide a dragRecruitment 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 was also down 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) 1,344.50p +1.36%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 754.00p +0.87%British Land Co (BLND) 543.00p +0.74%Polymetal International (POLY) 934.00p +0.70%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 114.10p +0.62%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 219.00p +0.60%Land Securities Group (LAND) 802.50p +0.56%Sage Group (SGE) 299.70p +0.47%Prudential (PRU) 813.50p +0.43%Standard Life (SL.) 258.50p +0.39%FTSE 100 - FallersPetrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,494.00p -4.66%Vedanta Resources (VED) 975.50p -2.16%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,954.00p -1.76%Whitbread (WTB) 2,117.00p -1.53%Xstrata (XTA) 913.40p -1.48%GKN (GKN) 214.90p -1.33%Evraz (EVR) 267.50p -1.07%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 738.00p -1.07%IMI (IMI) 881.00p -1.07%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,121.00p -1.06%FTSE 250 - RisersRuspetro (RPO) 155.00p +4.03%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 591.00p +1.90%BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 1,939.00p +1.73%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 494.90p +1.58%Dexion Absolute Ltd. GBP Shares (DAB) 135.90p +1.34%Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) 458.80p +1.28%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 120.00p +1.27%Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 486.07p +1.27%Rank Group (RNK) 121.40p +1.17%Diploma (DPLM) 434.70p +1.12%FTSE 250 - FallersPetropavlovsk (POG) 442.40p -2.34%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 39.17p -2.32%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 191.10p -2.30%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 308.50p -2.06%Regus (RGU) 98.95p -2.03%Michael Page International (MPI) 371.30p -2.03%Hunting (HTG) 790.00p -1.68%Essar Energy (ESSR) 111.80p -1.67%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 188.00p -1.62%Lonmin (LMI) 741.00p -1.59%BC