London open: Stocks edge higher as investors focus on ECB

5th Mar 2015 08:07

Stocks began the morning moving slightly higher ahead of a key policy meeting of the European Central Bank.Meeting in Cyprus, the assembled central bankers are expected to unveil the monetary authority's latest set of macroeconomic projections, which may provide clues on the extent to which its new quantitative easing programme will eventually be deployed.As of 09:07 the FTSE 100 was higher by 7 points to 6,927.07.Commenting on the above, Michael Hewson, Chief Market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "The inflation forecast for 2016 will be interesting though as it is currently 1.3%, and if it is revised upwards then QE could well have a much more limited shelf life than a lot of people currently expect. Indeed questions are already being raised as to whether QE is even necessary."The Monetary Policy Committee's announcement is due at noon.Acting as a backdrop, overnight, at the start of the National People's Congress (NPC), Chinese authorities lowered their forecast for economic growth this year to "about 7.5%" from "about 7.5%" for 2014. Beijing appears to be willing to tolerate a lower rate of expansion in the short-term, wrote economists at Capital Economics.The quarterly rate of UK house price growth firmed up for a second consecutive month in February as a result of increases in real earnings and spending power, the results of Halifax's latest survey showed.Over the three months to February they gained 2.6%, up from the 1.8% rise seen in the three months to January.Data from Germany, the Eurozone's powerhouse economy, on Thursday showed industrial orders fell 3.9% month-on-month in January after a revised increase of 4.4% in December. The reading undershot economists' expectations for a 1% decline. Orders slid 0.1% from a year earlier.Aviva pleases investors, Hunting leads gains on Stoxx 600Insurer Aviva reported a 6% rise in 2014 operating profit in the face of negative currency headwinds. The insurer made an operating profit of $2.17bn last year compared to a forecast of £2.15bn, which led to an increase in operating earnings per share by 10% to 47p from 42.6p in 2013.After a year of senior management changes and difficult conditions in some markets, Aggreko saw pre-tax profits decline 13% to £289m in the face of currency headwinds and lowered its guidance for the year ahead. Analysts had been expecting such a fall from the temporary power provider. A £40m adverse currency translation impact dragging trading profits down 13% to £306m, below consensus forecasts of £311m.Easyjet's passenger numbers rose 6.1% in February to 4.49m compared to a year ago, the airline reported on Thursday. The company's load factor, the number of passengers to the number of seats available, rose 2.2 percentage points (pp) to 90.9%.The London Stock Exchange saw revenues rise by 32% to £1.28bn in the last financial year, with organic revenues higher by 12% on an organic and constant currency basis. On an adjusted basis profits before tax improved 19% to hit £491.7m. For the full-year the company proposed a final dividend of 12.8%, an improvement of 6.5% on an equivalent basis.Schroders reported full-year 2014 pre-tax up 16% to £517.1m and assets under management up 14% to £300bn. The group generated net new business of £24.8bn compared to £7.9bn in 2013, due to competitive investment performance across a broad product range and strong distribution. The asset manager is paying a 78p dividend for the year, a 34% increase on 2013. The company's boss, Michael Dobson, said that markets may stay resilient in the low interest rate environment, but "we expect to see greater volatility in markets and therefore in investor demand in 2015".