London open: Stocks flat as markets await US jobs, RBS sinks early on

2nd Aug 2013 08:24

Stocks opened tentatively on Friday morning with markets taking a pause as investors waited to see whether the ongoing improvement in US economic data would continue with the all-important employment report due out this afternoon. The momentum in the US economic recovery gathered pace this week with jobless claims falling to a five-year low, the US ISM manufacturing index jumping to a two-year high and economic growth accelerating strongly in the second quarter.Meanwhile, Wednesday's ADP employment report - normally seen as a rough guide to today's official figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - came in better than expected, with 200,000 private-sector jobs being added in July (consensus forecast: 180,000).Both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 finished at new all-time highs on Thursday night on Wall Street, boosted by the strong figures as well as the Federal Reserve's support for continued monetary stimulus."Yesterday's surprise jump in the ISM manufacturing number, better-than-expected weekly jobless claims, combined with the improved ADP and GDP reports on Wednesday conspired to give is the perfect cocktail for yesterday's up move and today's US non-farm payrolls report could well add the final flourish to a record week, and a perfect start to August," said Senior Market Analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets.Today's official employment report is expected to see a 185,000 gain in non-farm payrolls in the US in July, slightly below the 195,000 increase in June. However, the unemployment rate is predicted to fall from 7.6% to 7.5%. FTSE 100: RBS sinks after H1 results, new CEO namedRoyal Bank of Scotland was a heavy faller this morning after confirming reports that Ross McEwan would take over as Chief Executive Officer from Stephen Hester as the lender unveiled its first-half results. The bank swung to a pre-tax profit of £1.3bn from a loss of £1.6bn last year, though ETX Capital's Head of Trading Joe Rundle described headline numbers as "damp". Mining stocks were out of favour early on as metal prices weakened: Fresnillo, Randgold, Antofagasta, Anglo American and BHP Billiton were all in the red. Vedanta Resources was also lower after suffering a shareholder revolt over its pay at its annual meeting on Thursday. Leading the upside was airline IAG after a high-flying second quarter which beat forecasts by a mile. The company reported an operating profit of €245m in the three months to June 30th, up from a loss of €4.0m the year before and well ahead of the €163m consensus estimate.Profits were flat at William Hill in the first half, causing shares to fall this morning, as a boom in mobile phone betting was offset by the impact of the slot machine tax change.Drinks can maker Rexam rose after upping its interim dividend by 14% despite profits being held back by high aluminium and labour costs in the first half.FTSE 100 - RisersInternational Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 307.00p +3.33%Weir Group (WEIR) 2,268.00p +2.95%CRH (CRH) 1,432.00p +1.92%BAE Systems (BA.) 456.30p +1.69%Rexam (REX) 513.50p +1.48%Prudential (PRU) 1,203.00p +1.35%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 795.50p +1.02%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 332.20p +1.00%ITV (ITV) 169.30p +0.95%Standard Life (SL.) 389.70p +0.93%FTSE 100 - FallersRoyal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 316.20p -5.19%William Hill (WMH) 471.30p -4.69%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,039.00p -4.15%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,713.00p -4.09%Antofagasta (ANTO) 892.00p -2.35%Aggreko (AGK) 1,615.00p -1.70%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,187.00p -1.49%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,321.00p -1.42%Anglo American (AAL) 1,463.00p -1.35%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,894.50p -1.33%FTSE 250 - RisersInchcape (INCH) 641.50p +9.28%Man Group (EMG) 90.30p +8.08%Inmarsat (ISAT) 718.00p +6.21%Vesuvius (VSVS) 467.00p +6.14%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 148.20p +4.22%Bumi (BUMI) 230.90p +4.10%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 120.00p +2.56%COLT Group SA (COLT) 104.40p +2.15%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,429.00p +2.07%Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 233.90p +1.92%FTSE 250 - FallersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 114.90p -3.20%Polymetal International (POLY) 654.00p -3.18%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 322.70p -3.09%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 264.00p -2.65%Genus (GNS) 1,376.00p -2.48%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 170.50p -2.29%Grainger (GRI) 183.40p -2.19%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 170.30p -2.01%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 36.56p -1.93%Evraz (EVR) 92.65p -1.80%BC