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London open: Stocks edge higher at the end of the month
London stocks have begun the last trading session of the month slightly higher despite another round of heavy selling in the US technology space the day before.
Weakness in a key report on manufacturing sector conditions in China was also weighing on sentiment, although gains in government bonds in Japan and the US in the wake of the Bank of Japan’s decision to lower its inflation forecasts appeared were acting as a partial offset.
Share prices, it should be noted, sometimes receive a degree of support at month-end, helped by window dressing on the part of fund managers.
Against that backdrop, the FTSE 100 was edging higher by 0.10% or 7.15 points to 7,707.93 as of 0900 BST.
Commenting on Tuesday’s early market action, Mike van Dulken and Artjom Hatsaturjants at Accendo Markets said the muted open came after tech sector losses on Wall St extended into a mixed Asian session, with Australia and Japan the lone gainers in the sea of red.
“The bank of Japan’s (BoJ) decision to allow more flexibility in its stimulus programme kept the Nikkei positive, however, China PMIs missed expectations (watch the miners; they were up in Australia), with manufacturing at its lowest since February, and non-manufacturing at its lowest since last August,” the paid said.
Investors were also eyeing results from US tech giant Apple scheduled for after the Wall Street closing bell.
As expected, rate-setters in Japan did tweak the framework for their monetary policy, with central bank governor Haruhiko Kuroda saying the monetary authority will now allow benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond yields to rise as high as 0.20%, versus 0.10% previously.
Policymakers also announced their decision to shift purchases of ETFs towards those of shares listed on the wider Topix index, having focused strictly on the Nikkei 225.
Significantly however, they also pledged to keep policy rates at “extremely” low levels “for an extended period of time” and cut their medium-term projections for inflation.
The response in Japanese 10-year bonds was immediate, with their yield retreating by five basis points to 0.05% and that on similarly-dated US Treasuries off by another four points to 2.94% – retracing the prior day’s gains.
In China meanwhile, the ‘official’ factory sector purchasing managers’ index for July printed at 51.2, which was down from a reading of 51.5 for the month before.
A gauge of export orders included in the survey was steady, likely showing that weakness in the Chinese currency, the yuan, was compensating for the impact of US tariffs; however, thus revealing that domestic headwinds were acting as the main drag on activity.
On the geopolitical front meanwhile, US President Donald Trump appeared to open the door to meeting with Iran’s leaders. Yet in parallel, reports surfaced that North Korea was might be continuing to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles at its facility located in Sanumdong, outside the capital Pyongyang.
Cash flow drops at Centrica, dividend payout raised at BP
Centrica posted its interim results for the period ended 30 June on Tuesday, reporting “stable” adjusted gross margin and EBITDA relative to the first half of last year, with adjusted operating cash flow falling 11% to £1.1bn.
BP reported second-quarter profit four times higher than a year earlier as the oil company increased its dividend for the first time in almost four years. Underlying replacement cost profit for the three months to the end of June surged to $2.8bn (£2.1bn) from $684m the year before. BP increased its quarterly dividend 2.5% to 10.25 cents a share – the first rise since the third quarter of 2014.
Standard Chartered’s first-half profit rose by almost a quarter as revenue rose and bad debts halved at the emerging markets-focused bank. Underlying pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of June rose 23% to $2.4bn (£1.8bn) as operating income rose 6% to $7.6bn. Credit impairment dropped to $293m from $583m a year earlier. Operating costs rose 7% to $5.1bn as Standard Chartered invested in digital banking services and internal efficiency programmes.
Just Eat reported a slight slowing of revenue and order growth and a 3% fall in pre-tax profits for the first half of the year as the online food ordering website increased investment to keep the top line growing. The FTSE 100 group kept its guidance for full-year underlying profits unchanged at £165-185m but raised its revenue guidance to £740-770m.
Rentokil Initial posted a decent set of first half results, with revenue and profit in excess of its medium-term financial targets. The pest control and hygiene firm said ongoing revenue was up 14.2% at constant exchange rates to £1.17bn, while ongoing operating profit grew 13.1% to £134.5m. The interim dividend was increased 15% to 1.311p per share.
Fresnillo reported an 11.3% improvement in adjusted revenue to $1.19bn for the six months ended 30 June. The FTSE 100 precious metals miner said gross profit and EBITDA were of $502.2m and $566.9m – increases of up 9.2% and 8.5% respectively.
Indivior‘s lawyers have achieved another victory in the drug developer’s ongoing US court battle, which will prevent rival Dr Reddy’s Laboratories from selling its generic version of Suboxone Film. The US Federal Court of Appeal has denied Dr Reddy’s motion to block a preliminary injunction that was granted at the request of Indivior to prohibit the generic drugmaker from selling its buprenorphine/naloxone sublingual film product.
