London open: Miners, financials gain ahead of BoE minutes

17th Jul 2013 08:30

Markets edged higher on Wednesday morning with strong gains in the mining and financial sectors providing a lift ahead of key announcements from central banks in the UK and US.The minutes of the latest Bank of England policy meeting are due out this morning with investors waiting to hear what Mark Carney had to say at his first meeting as Governor.Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that markets will be looking for "whether [Carney] tried to pursue the other policy makers to increase the asset purchase facility, or at the very least offer some forward guidance".US stocks finished lower last night, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both pulling back from record closing highs on Monday, as markets looked ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's semi-annual testimony to Congress today and tomorrow.Sentiment was also dampened by Esther George, the head of the Kansas City Fed, who told Fox Business Network that now is the time to taper quantitative easing as the economic recovery gains momentum.Regarding Bernanke's speech, Market Strategist Ishaq Siddiqi from ETX Capital said: "it's likely he won't stray too far away from his dovish remarks last week and for investors, more so than his speech, the Q&A will be highly scrutinised for signs of possible timeframe for tapering when the Fed eventually starts the process and also the amount the Fed will gradually unwind."FTSE 100: Smiths drops after profit warningEngineering company Smiths Group slumped this morning after saying that full-year headline operating profit will likely to be £15m below current expectations, reflecting contractual issues in its Detection unit. A few stocks were also in the red this morning after a number of broker downgrades: precious metals and chemicals group Johnson Matthey and consumer products firm Unilever were hit by ratings cuts from Credit Suisse, to 'neutral' and 'underperform', respectively; while chemicals business Croda was lower after Barclays Capital lowered its rating to 'underweight'.Heading the other way was RSA Insurance after Citigroup raised its recommendation for the stock to 'buy', saying that the company is on a "clearer path to earnings growth".Other financial stocks including RBS were also higher, with the bank making gains after Citigroup said that proposals for a 'good bank'/'bad bank' split are likely to be dismissed "given the complexity, the potential cost to the taxpayer and probably shareholder dissent from minority investors". However, the broker maintained its 'sell' rating on the stock, saying that it foresees a "slow and painful recovery [...] over a prolonged period of time".Heavyweight mining stocks were also on the rise this morning with Fresnillo, Antofagasta, Glencore Xstrata, Anglo American and Rio Tinto registering decent gains. BHP Billiton rose after reporting that half-year profit surged as revenue climbed on the back of strong production results. Imperial Tobacco was among the worst performers after going ex-dividend, meaning that from today new investors will not be able to get their hands of the company's latest payouts.FTSE 250: Hochschild Mining gains after Q2 updateHochschild Mining was a high riser this morning after saying that production volumes in the first half were in line with expectations. The company reiterated its output guidance for 20m ounces for 2013.FirstGroup was in demand after the transport group said the recovery programmes at its First Student and UK Bus arms were on track.WH Smith, WS Atkins and Telecom Plus all went ex-dividend this morning. The latter fell despite this morning reporting an 11% hike in customer numbers during the first quarter.FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,046.00p +2.95%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 130.40p +2.11%Antofagasta (ANTO) 850.00p +2.04%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,866.50p +1.88%Pearson (PSON) 1,270.00p +1.76%Anglo American (AAL) 1,347.00p +1.74%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,120.00p +1.73%Tesco (TSCO) 361.10p +1.58%Glencore Xstrata (GLEN) 268.70p +1.57%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,925.50p +1.47%FTSE 100 - FallersSmiths Group (SMIN) 1,346.00p -3.24%Croda International (CRDA) 2,545.00p -2.30%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,744.00p -2.21%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,209.00p -1.95%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,369.00p -1.51%Unilever (ULVR) 2,762.00p -1.43%Capita (CPI) 1,040.00p -1.42%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 398.50p -1.34%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,996.00p -1.28%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 307.80p -0.68%FTSE 250 - RisersHochschild Mining (HOC) 147.80p +8.60%Evraz (EVR) 101.00p +4.29%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 131.00p +2.75%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 145.60p +2.10%Dialight (DIA) 1,051.00p +2.04%Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 403.90p +1.94%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 164.40p +1.86%Keller Group (KLR) 1,116.00p +1.73%FirstGroup (FGP) 93.95p +1.73%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 24.74p +1.60%FTSE 250 - FallersTelecom Plus (TEP) 1,350.00p -2.88%Menzies(John) (MNZS) 719.50p -2.44%Xaar (XAR) 854.00p -1.84%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 36.39p -1.83%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.65 -1.77%esure Group (ESUR) 322.30p -1.74%Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,055.00p -1.68%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,053.00p -1.59%NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP (NBLS) 102.30p -1.45%Computacenter (CCC) 487.50p -1.44%BC