Date: Thursday 21 Jun 2012
LONDON (ShareCast) - Gloomy manufacturing data from China and disappointing economic activity figures from the Eurozone weighed on the mining sector on Thursday. Meanwhile, with the US Federal Reserve holding back from extra quantitative easing measures last night, the dollar strengthened meaning that greenback-denominated metals prices fell.
Anglo American, Vedanta Resources, Glencore, Kazkahmys, Xstrata and BHP Billiton were among the worst performers in afternoon trade.
Shares in terrestrial broadcaster ITV were on the up after Exane BNP Paribas reiterated its ‘outperform’ rating on the stock and Goldman Sachs kept its ‘buy recommendation. In contrast, real estate investment trusts British Land and Land Securities were suffering after Societe Generale downgraded both stocks to ‘sell’.
Insurance stocks were extending gains made yesterday after it was revealed that the EU is thinking about ‘phasing in’ new capital rules for life insurers over the next seven years, easing the pressure and buying the industry time to meet new regulations. Fitch also said yesterday that insurance firms are loss exposed than banks to contagion risk triggered by a Greek exit from the Eurozone.
Sector peers Standard Life, Aviva and RSA Insurance were advancing today.
Unilever was in demand after Investec warned investors not to look too much into the profit warnings across the consumer goods sector, saying that the UK-listed company is not like its peers P&G and Danone. "For us, ULVR is a company that is gaining momentum rather than losing it, whose input pressures are getting better rather than worse, who is relatively less exposed to slowing geographies and who is less of a hostage to guidance fortune."
FTSE 100 - Risers
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,046.00p +1.95%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 161.30p +1.90%
ITV (ITV) 77.85p +1.76%
Standard Life (SL.) 232.70p +1.66%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,415.00p +1.43%
Sage Group (SGE) 271.30p +1.42%
Schroders (SDR) 1,326.00p +1.38%
Aviva (AV.) 282.90p +1.36%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 107.90p +1.31%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,089.00p +1.31%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Anglo American (AAL) 2,159.00p -2.53%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 957.50p -2.10%
BP (BP.) 417.80p -1.84%
Glencore International (GLEN) 327.60p -1.70%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 743.50p -1.59%
Xstrata (XTA) 856.50p -1.56%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 268.80p -1.50%
Centrica (CNA) 310.70p -1.40%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,849.50p -1.39%
British Land Co (BLND) 505.00p -1.27%
BC
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