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| | London close: Stocks end higher, tracking early gains on Wall Street |  | | FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |  |  |  |  | | Please click on the images to view our interactive charts | | London stocks finished near their best level of the session on Friday, boosted by better-than-expected economic data in the States and as the pound slipped back below $1.41, albeit following disappointing retail sales data at home. The FTSE 100 was up 0.83% or 59.89 points to 7,294.70, while the pound's recent bounce reversed with a 0.39% decline against the greenback to 1.4044, although it was 0.19% higher versus the euro to 1.1295, after official retail figures showed slower growth than expected in January. Sales volumes were up 0.1% on the month compared to a 1.4% drop in December, missing expectations for a 0.4% gain. Three-month sales to the end of January were also at the lowest level since last April. On the year, retail sales were up 1.6% in January, falling short of expectations for a 2.4% increase. Non-food volumes rose by 0.7% month-to-month, so the weakness reflected a 0.4% decline in food store sales, building on December's 0.9% drop. ONS senior statistician Rhian Murphy said: "Retail sales growth was broadly flat at the beginning of the New Year with the longer-term picture showing a continued slowdown in the sector. This can partly be attributed to a background of generally rising prices. Growth in the quantity of sporting equipment, games and toys being bought was offset by falling food sales when compared with the same month a year earlier. Sporting equipment sales have grown more than usual in January following an increased uptake for gym wear." Earlier this week, figures from the ONS revealed that UK inflation unexpectedly held steady at 3% last month, just shy of November's five-year high of 3.1%. Pantheon Macroeconomics said that the failure of retail sales to recover meaningfully from December's drop highlighted that consumers can't be counted on to drive the economy forwards this year. "Consumers will come under more pressure to scrimp as the fiscal consolidation intensifies in April and mortgage rates continue to creep up. Slower job creation, meanwhile, likely will be the flip-side of stronger growth in wages this year, implying that growth in overall nominal incomes won’t accelerate this year. And finally, households’ low saving rate means that they have little scope to shield spending from any further shocks to their incomes. As such, 2018 is shaping up to be another tough year for retailers." Stateside, the Commerce Department reported that US housing starts jumped by 9.7% month-on-month in January to reach a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.326m (consensus: 1.234m), alongside a much better than forecast reading on consumer confidence at the start of February, courtesy of the University of Michigan. In corporate news, warehouse property owner and developerSegro surged after taking the wraps off a strong set of results for 2017, with a record level of development completions during the period, almost all of which have been leased. Results were ahead of consensus forecasts on both net asset value and earnings as the company reported good underlying investment and occupational markets, aided by lots of development activity after the £900m fundraising and debt restructure. Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty gained as it won a 30% share of a huge contract to design and build an 'automated people mover' at Los Angeles International airport. Rio Tinto shares on the other hand edged lower after saying it had been told by Mongolia it had until 2022 to find a domestic power source for the $5.3bn expansion the Oyu Tolgoi mine. Analysts at SP Angel noted that Rio already operates on-site power generation at a number of its mines in Australia and in the US "and will certainly have both the in-house expertise and the wider industry contacts to develop a practical and cost-effective power supply solution". Speciality chemicals company Croda rose as its wholly-owned subsidiary, Croda Europe, agreed to buy AIM-listed crop enhancement developer Plant Impact for around £10m. On the downside, BGEO, formerly Bank of Georgia, fell despite posting an 8.1% jump in full-year profit and saying its plans to split into two London-listed companies was still on track. Broker Numis said it was "strong" fourth quarter and a "better than expected" result for 2017 as a whole. Temporary power supplier Aggreko was hit by a downgrade from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, but Restaurant Group was up after being lifted to 'hold' from 'reduce' at HSBC and Standard Life Aberdeen gained on the back of an upgrade to 'outperform' from 'market perform' by Bernstein. Evraz made gains after being initiated at 'buy' by Deutsche Bank, while ConvaTec rallied after an upgrade at JPMorgan and LSE advanced after Societe Generale reinstated the stock at 'buy'. Market Movers FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,294.70 0.83%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,733.64 0.81%
techMARK (TASX) 3,321.44 0.84% FTSE 100 - Risers SEGRO (SGRO) 591.20p 6.48%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,430.00p 4.64%
WPP (WPP) 1,471.00p 4.18%
Evraz (EVR) 394.70p 2.92%
Pearson (PSON) 700.60p 2.76%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,568.00p 2.69%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,456.00p 2.68%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 204.65p 2.40%
ITV (ITV) 171.75p 2.23%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,738.00p 2.06% FTSE 100 - Fallers Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,306.00p -2.14%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 914.40p -1.91%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,577.40p -1.29%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 832.20p -0.95%
Carnival (CCL) 4,827.00p -0.72%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,107.50p -0.44%
Kingfisher (KGF) 358.60p -0.33%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,417.00p -0.33%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,550.50p -0.29%
CRH (CRH) 2,482.00p -0.28% FTSE 250 - Risers Capita (CPI) 190.50p 5.25%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,498.00p 5.20%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 106.30p 4.63%
SIG (SHI) 147.70p 4.46%
Hunting (HTG) 594.50p 4.02%
Card Factory (CARD) 200.80p 3.99%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 447.50p 3.71%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 247.50p 3.56%
Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 637.00p 3.49%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,130.00p 3.48% FTSE 250 - Fallers Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 570.00p -4.28%
Aggreko (AGK) 760.20p -3.45%
Rank Group (RNK) 227.00p -2.99%
Genus (GNS) 2,284.00p -2.89%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,946.00p -2.19%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 3,326.00p -2.18%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 189.00p -2.07%
Ascential (ASCL) 364.00p -1.94%
JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII) 720.00p -1.64%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 290.20p -1.63% |
| | Atlantic Advisory - Share Tips of the Year 2018 | | Download Our Latest Report Here Losses can exceed deposits |
| | Europe close: Stocks end week on a high note |  | | FTSE 100 | Euronext | Dax perf | CAC 40 |  | | | | | European shares finished the Friday session in the black as Asia and Wall Street provided initial support before solid corporate earnings provided extra impetus. The pan-Europe Stoxx 600 index was up 1.09% at 380.62, while France's CAC-40 was up 1.13% at 5,281.58 points, alongside a 0.86% gain for the Dax to 12,451.96. Asian shares rose for a fifth straight day on Friday as investors dipped their toes back in the water after heavy selling earlier this month, while Wall Street booked a hat-trick of rises for the week. "Traders are quickly getting used to higher bond yields, higher inflation and another round of hikes in global interest rates that will follow, so much so that US stocks are recovering twice as fast as in London," said Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at interactive investor. "Markets will remain volatile, for sure, but we’ve just found out that big investors can’t stay out of this market for long, and demand for equities typically picks up in the weeks before tax year-end." In corporate news, Vopak led the risers after earnings at the Dutch firm fell less than expected. Renault shares were up as the company said 2017 net profit motored in 2017 due to higher volumes and market share and a one-off benefit from US tax cuts. EDF shares were up as the company said posted a rise in 2017 profits. Segro rose after The FTSE 100 firm said pre-tax profit was up 25.7% to £194.2m, which the board put down to its focus on customer and portfolio management delivering high customer retention rates, like-for-like rental growth and a low vacancy rate. Swedish defence company Saab ended lower, but with its shares paring a 9% drop at the opening bell to trade just 1% lower as fourth quarter earnings came in below forecasts. Vivendi shares slumped 6% despite reporting a massive jump in fourth quarter profits to €828m profits from €81m a year earlier. |
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Top of the stocks Number of Deals Bought Number of Deals Sold |
| | Market Analysis 16/02/2018 Today’s highlights: Global markets continue to climb - Another day of wins on Wall Street: Markets in the US continued their positive momentum yesterday, as the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both closed more than 1.2% higher, and Nasdaq rose more than 1.5%. The Netflix stock had an impressive day yesterday, climbing 5.36%, joined by Apple and Boeing, both of which rose more than 3.3%. At the same time, the USD weakened against many of its major peers, nearing a three-year low.
- Asian markets higher: Following the gains seen on Wall Street, markets in the East were also on the rise, as the Nikkei and China50 indices both showed significant gains. Several markets in Asia are closed today, in observance of the new lunar year.
- Volatility expected for USD today: The monthly Building Permits report is due in the US at 13:30 GMT, potentially generating volatility for the greenback.
Read More... |
| | Cryptocurrencies Report | | Top Cryptocurrencies | # | Name | Market Cap($) | Price(%) | Change | Price Graph(3m) | | 1 |  | Bitcoin (BTC) | 168,959,521,725 | 9,934.8 | -1.06% |  | | 2 |  | Ethereum (ETH) | 91,478,371,309 | 930.58 | +0.29% |  | | 3 |  | Ripple (XRP) | 43,907,993,163 | 1.09 | -1.74% |  | | 4 |  | Bitcoin Cash / BCC (BCH) | 25,284,279,493 | 1,462.1 | +7.7% |  | | 5 |  | Litecoin (LTC) | 12,596,379,678 | 225.46 | +1.44% |  | | 6 |  | Cardano (ADA) | 10,429,890,082 | 0.388017 | -0.26% |  | |
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| | US open: Stocks start slightly higher, Nasdaq set for best week since 2011 | Wall Street kicked-off the Friday session in good form, with investors seemingly setting aside their concerns about rising inflation and higher interest rates and stocks on track to extend their win streak into a sixth day. At 1515 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.15%, with the S&P 500 having moved up 0.08% as the Nasdaq gained 0.20%, with the latter flirting with its best week in over six years. Connor Campbell, financial analyst over at SpreadEx, said, "The Dow looked pretty tired after the bell, at the very best nudging 0.2% higher. It must be said, however, that of late the index has tended to save most of its energy for later in the US session, meaning it may well open up before the day’s close." David Morrison, chief market analyst at GKFX, was a tad more cautious. "All this suggests that investors have shrugged off the stock market correction from earlier in the month. However, it's worth noting that the futures indices have all pulled back from their best levels this morning and also that this week's bounce-back looks a bit overdone. So today's session takes on particular significance, especially ahead of the weekend. Another strong close will have many traders looking for US stock indices to retest January’s record highs. However, if we get a pull-back which takes the S&P 500 back below 2,700 then get set for another bumpy week," Morrison told clients. From a technical standpoint, Jose Maria Rodriguez, chief technical analyst at WebFG UK, pointed out that the S&P 500 was now at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of its recent downdraft. In terms of probabilities, although it was impossible to know for certain, a re-test of the 200-day moving average was more likely than an extension of the recent rally in the S&P 500 back to its record highs, Rodriguez said. He also noted the recent decline in trading volumes ahead of the 19 February holiday celebrating George Washington's birthday. In the FX arena, the dollar was trying its best to soften losses seen all week, taking back 0.4% against the pound and 0.5% on the Euro. In macro news, new-home construction rose to the highest level seen since October 2016 in January, as a surge in apartment building helped build momentum in the housing market, government figures showed on Friday. The results were seen as a positive sign that homebuilding in the US would continue to advance after the best year seen in terms of new construction in the last decade. Demand was expected to be supported by continued hirings and heightened confidence required for consumers to make big purchases. Separately, building permits soared to their highest level since 2007 as housing starts jumped 9.7% to an annual rate of 1.32m units, the Commerce Department said on Friday. The general consensus amongst economists led to a forecast of housing starts rising at a pace of 1.23m units to kick the year off. US consumer sentiment improved unexpectedly in February, hitting its second-highest level since 2004 as tax cuts and a recovering jobs market helped Americans shrug off stock-market volatility, according to a survey undertaken by the University of Michigan. The rise in sentiment, which beat all forecasts, came as Americans were getting paid more as a result of Donald Trump's tax cuts announced in December. The increase was also consistent with data on hiring and wages published by the Labour Department earlier in February that showed around 35% of respondents gave favourable references to government policies, the highest level in more than fifty years. In corporate news, Campbell Soup had fallen back as much as 3.06% despite its second-quarter results returning an adjusted earnings per share of $1.00 versus estimates of $0.82, and Kraft Heinz suffered its worst decline in more than two years after revealing disappointing sales and profit results, fuelling sentiment that the firm required large-scale acquisition to drive growth. Coca-Cola fizzed 0.71% higher at the open after its fourth-quarter numbers beat analysts' forecasts on both the top and bottom line. |
| | Following the financial crisis, high street banks have funded fewer SME housebuilders | | Alternative finance providers are stepping in to fill this void, offering investors high margins and attractive returns. One of these lenders, Clearwell Capital is currently fundraising with a 3-year secured bond paying 10% per annum. Click here to find out more. Capital at risk. |
| | Broker tips: Sky, WPP, Standard Life Aberdeen | Bernstein upgraded Standard Life Aberdeen to 'outperform' from 'market perform' following the selloff in the previous session and on the back of year-to-date weakness in the stock, but cut its price target to 430p from 460p. The company said on Thursday that it could lose £109bn of Scottish Widows and Lloyds Banking Group assets under management, prompting a big drop in the share price which Bernstein called an overreaction. Ahead of full year results on 23 February, Bernstein think that "if the rest of the business looks OK, and management provides investors comfort that it could shed some cost related to SW assets, the shares could get back on track after this sharp selloff". Analysts said that while it's not a given that Scottish Widows and Lloyds will terminate the agreement, it is likely, so the loss of assets under management and the related estimated earnings impact has been reflected in the Bernstein model. Analysts also took the opportunity to mark-to-market for moves in asset prices and in the valuation of HDFC Life, with the net result being a reduction in the price target. Even in its most punitive scenario, in which SLA loses all of the Scottish Widows revenue but is unable to shed of the related costs, Bernstein still sees 16% upside. In its base case - in which SLA can shed costs over three years equal to half the revenue associated with Scottish Widows assets - it sees 19% upside. Sky has effectively de-risked the threat of key sports broadcasting rights losses in the UK and Germany since the start of last year with renewals of both Premier League and Bundesliga rights, but analysts at RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock on valuation ground. However, RBC said that after the renewal of the FA Premier League rights, Sky was trading in line with US giant Fox's takeover offer, meaning Fox would likely bump its offer in order to get approval at the upcoming EGM, should regulatory clearance be given, leading RBC to raise its price target to 1,150p from 1,075p. RBC said Fox's current takeover offer was no longer quite so attractive to Sky. "Fox has reserved the right to convert its scheme of arrangement to a takeover offer. This would enable Fox to complete the deal much more easily (assuming regulatory approval) as Fox is allowed to use its 39% stake in the vote. However it comes at a cost as takeover offers do not automatically squeeze out minority shareholders," the analysts wrote. While a new owner can de-list at 75% ownership and squeeze out minority owners at 90%, RBC believes Disney "would much prefer" to have 100% of the equity allowing full operational consolidation. "Because of this, we believe Fox is more likely to prefer to sweeten the terms of its offer. Based on history we assume a 7% increase in the offer to 1150p, which we use as our new price target." WPP shares have rallied to a six-month high amid a recent improvement in the ad market, capped off by a bullish view given by analysts at Goldman Sachs and Numis on Friday. Goldman expects 2017 ad figure to emerge showing a "more positive note in most TV markets", based on analysts' conversations with industry participants, read-across from recent results and comments from large advertisers. A "slightly more positive" outlook is seen for 2018, weighted towards the first half of the year, helped by easy comparatives compared to last year's slow start, and sports events. Previewing WPP's final results on 1 March, broker Numis forecast profit before tax of £2.09bn and earnings per share of 118p, with the consensus forecast for £2.195m and 120p respectively. Other global marketing communications groups have already reported and Numis characterises the tone as "cautiously optimistic", with IPG particularly upbeat, and both IPG and Omnicom guiding to organic revenue growth of 2-3% for 2018. "After a challenging 2017, we would not be surprised if WPP guided very cautiously at its finals and then raised guidance as it progressed through the year. The group gave a robust defence of its business model at the Q3 results when it indicated that consultancies and Facebook/Google were not structurally challenging its business, but that 2017 was disappointing due to the major CPG clients reducing spend." | | | | To advertise in the Euro Markets Bulletin please contact advertise@advfn.com |
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