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London open: Stocks flat in light day for economic data
London stocks were trading flat on Friday morning following fairly uninspiring sessions in the US and Asia and with remarks from central bankers filling some of the vacuum.
As of 08:58 GMT the Footsie was higher by just 0.20 points or 0.0% at 6,330.13.
Speaking at the 25th European Banking Congress in Frankfurt European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi said that should it become apparent that the stability inflation mandate was not going to be met, then the ECB would do “what we must” to bring inflation higher “as quickly as possible”.
That sent the single currency immediately half a percentage point lower versus the US dollar, towards 1.067. However, traders in cable were unimpressed, with the currency pair largely unmoved at 1.5281.
“One clear message was towards the deposit rate, which could be moving lower again so that they can inflate their balance sheet. The main focus for his speech was towards inflation, which is not moving much. But here is the question, no central bank so far has been successful to achieve their target by printing money – no matter how we look at it,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Ava Trade.
“So, going next month, we expect Draghi to be very aggressive, but I wonder if his friends from Germany will be on board with him.”
There was little on the economic agenda to guide investors, with the exception of October’s public finance figures.
In the event, public sector net borrowing in the UK increased by £7.5bn in October (consensus: £5.3bn), down from the previous month’s upwardly revised reading of £8.3bn.
BATS plotting to roll-up rival
British American Tobacco has put together a syndicate of banks to finance a possible purchase of rival Imperial Tobacco, according to the Financial Times’s Alphaville, which cites “people claiming direct knowledge of the process”. “With Imperial shares now trading near a record high the company might choose to go pens down rather than risk overpaying,” the same sources cautioned.
Spectris, the productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls company, said group like-for-like sales fell by 1% in the four months to the end of October, with trading conditions worsening as the period progressed. Chief executive John O’Higgins said: “The period has been characterised by challenging trading conditions, particularly in our largest geographic region, North America. The board currently anticipates that full year adjusted operating profit will be towards the lower end of the range of market expectations.”
John Lewis’s weekly sales have reached £100m for the first time this Christmas shopping season. The retailer revealed its sales figures for the week ending 14 November as festive sales ramp up. It said sales for the week were up 1.5% on last year and 15.8% on the previous week, and it showed signs it would be an “omnichannel Christmas”. “Two thirds of our customers now visit both a shop and johnlewis.com to make a purchase,” the company revealed.
Melrose Industries said trading for the Elster Group it agreed to sell to Honeywell in July was strong in the ten months to October, although its Brush business experienced challenging end market conditions. Sales at Elster were up 14% versus last year at constancy currency, 6% if excluding the acquisition of Eclipse in November last year. Melrose said the sale of the group was on course to complete in first the quarter of next year.
