London open: Stocks flat ahead of EU summit

18th Oct 2012 08:34

- Markets await EU summit- Chinese data points to stabilisation- EVRAZ and the miners gain early onLondon's FTSE 100 index opened broadly flat on Thursday morning as investors showed caution ahead of the EU summit in Brussels.Markus Huber from ETX Capital said this morning: "EU leaders are kicking off their two day summit in Brussels today, although expectations in general are very low and nobody expects that any kind of final deal will be struck neither what Spain nor a European banking union is concerned, however markets seem to have priced in at least some progress on both issues."Last night saw the release of some solid economic figures from China, giving mining stocks a lift in London early on. The data show a moderate acceleration in activity and came alongside better-than-expected prints for retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investments. China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 7.4% year-on-year rate in the third quarter of the year as expected, down from the 7.6% in quarter two. While this was the slowest rate of expansion in 12 years - except for that seen in the first quarter of 2009 - economists reckons that they can see hopeful signs which point to a stabilisation, such as a better tone to exports and a progressive improvement in residential investment.Financial trader David White from Spreadex said: "European benchmarks will be watched closely this morning to determine whether sentiment holds ahead of significant news flows due out later today. The EU economic summit joins UK retail sales, Spanish 10-year auction, US unemployment claims and manufacturing data. Traders are potentially buyers of volatility given the data-heavy session and will look to position in line with any significant prevailing bias."FTSE 100: Mining stocks celebrate Chinese dataRobust Chinese data saw mining stocks gain in early trading with Vedanta, Kazakhmys and EVRAZ leading the risers on the Footsie. ENRC, Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta were also making decent gains.EVRAZ, the steel, mining and vanadium group, was in demand even though it saw production decrease in the third quarter while prices were hit by tough conditions in global steel markets.Drinks giant SABMiller was among the fallers this morning despite seeing good growth in lager volumes shipped across most regions in the first half of its financial year. Weighing on the shares was a ratings downgrade by Shore Capital to 'hold'.Also hit by a broker downgrade this morning was Royal Dutch Shell after Goldman Sachs lowered its recommendation for the oil titan to 'sell' and cut its target price for the shares from 2,840p to 2,260p.FTSE 250: Booker, Go-Ahead and Jupiter impress with updatesThere was a flurry of interim management statement (IMSs) on the second-tier index this morning, providing some movement in share prices early on.Cash and carry chain Booker gained after saying that like-for-like sales rose 3.1% for the 24 weeks to September 14th.Transport group Go-Ahead said that trading in the first quarter has been strong as it announced a new ambitious target for profit growth in its bus division. The company said bus operating profit should be £100m by 2015/16, compared with the £64-70m range over the past five years.Fund manager Jupiter rose after saying that assets under management increased from £23.37bn to £25.0bn in the three months to the end of September.Business published and events organiser UBM was out of favour after missing forecasts in the third quarter. Revenue in the first nine months of 2012 gained 4.0% to £734.6m; Investec had expected £746m.FTSE 100 - RisersEvraz (EVR) 259.40p +2.69%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 777.00p +2.24%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,166.00p +1.66%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,324.00p +1.46%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,082.00p +1.41%Anglo American (AAL) 1,930.50p +1.31%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 356.60p +1.25%BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,038.50p +1.22%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,222.50p +1.21%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,485.00p +1.16%FTSE 100 - FallersCapital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 332.20p -2.15%Unilever (ULVR) 2,309.00p -1.58%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 282.60p -1.22%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,469.50p -1.18%Diageo (DGE) 1,749.00p -1.10%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 658.00p -1.05%SSE (SSE) 1,443.00p -1.03%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 41.72p -1.01%ITV (ITV) 91.55p -0.87%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 701.00p -0.85%FTSE 250 - RisersGo-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,331.00p +3.18%Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 270.90p +2.69%COLT Group SA (COLT) 121.50p +2.36%Henderson Group (HGG) 121.50p +2.36%Booker Group (BOK) 96.35p +2.12%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 142.60p +1.93%Cookson Group (CKSN) 553.50p +1.75%Michael Page International (MPI) 373.40p +1.74%Premier Oil (PMO) 386.70p +1.71%Fenner (FENR) 366.20p +1.55%FTSE 250 - FallersUBM (UBM) 690.00p -4.50%Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 739.00p -4.40%Man Group (EMG) 88.50p -4.38%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 100.60p -3.36%Diploma (DPLM) 436.20p -2.42%Cranswick (CWK) 756.50p -2.26%NMC Health (NMC) 181.10p -2.11%PZ Cussons (PZC) 322.00p -1.68%Telecom Plus (TEP) 867.50p -1.64%Elementis (ELM) 226.30p -1.61%BC