News Story

LONDON (ShareCast) - - Stocks edge higher, but still cautious
- Italy now in the spotlight
- Chinese bank lending improves

After a subdued start, London's FTSE 100 index had edged higher by Tuesday lunchtime, but gains were only slight as the Eurozone uncertainty continues to cloud the outlook for the global economy.

Investors will still be digesting the weekend's news that Spain has requested a credit line of up to €100bn to help recapitalise its banks. However, the focus has shifted to Italy amidst worries that Rome will be the next to fall victim to the European debt crisis contagion and also need a rescue.

Meanwhile, EU financial officials told Reuters that they have discussed such options as limiting ATM withdrawals, imposing Eurozone capital controls and imposing border checks just in case Greece ends up deciding to leave the region and exit the currency.

In other news, Chinese bank lending and money-supply growth accelerated significantly in May. Analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a research note: "We believe these are likely the early signs of policy easing becoming more effective, possibly leading to improvement in activity growth in the next two to three months."

Also helping to drive gains today were comments from Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans who would support more stimulus in the US to generate more jobs. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, he said: "I've been favour of pretty much any accommodative policy I've heard about […] Extending the Twist would be useful […] More asset purchases would be useful. More mortgage-backed securities purchases would be good," he said.

In domestic news, UK manufacturing registered a surprise fall in April, raising the prospect of a longer period of recession for the country. The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing production fell 0.7% in April compared with the month before, whereas analysts had pencilled in no change.

FTSE 100: ICAP could bounce on a Greek exit

Interdealer broker ICAP was a high riser of the day, jumping nearly 3%. Faraday Research labelled the stock as a buy this morning, saying that the Greek election this coming weekend is the catalyst "to really get things moving" - ICAP tends to benefit from increased volatility in markets. Analyst David Lowery said that while a Greek exit from the Eurozone may be back for the global economy, "it would probably be fantastic news for ICAP".

Mining stocks were mixed by midday despite the improving data from China: precious metals peers Fresnillo and Randgold Resources were in demand, as were Anglo American and BHP Billiton, while Evraz and Polymetal were among the worst performers.

Glencore and Xstrata were making gains with the potential merger partners being boosted by positive comments from Jefferies. The broker said that certain factors have reduced the pressure on Glencore to bump up its offer for Xstrata and said that the merger on the original terms has a high probability of success.

Supermarket firm Sainsbury was on the up after making a surprise move into the e-book retail market with the acquisition of HMV's stake in online venture Anobii.

FTSE 250: RPC drops on gloomy outlook

Shares in plastic packaging firm RPC Group dropped despite the firm hiking its dividend after the successful acquisition of food packaging firm Superfos helped drive up profit in the year to the end of March. However, the firm noted that in the short term it was facing a difficult and uncertain macro-economic environment.

Like-for-like sales growth slowed at Spirit as the pubs group ran into stronger comparatives from a year earlier, while things are getting worse in the group's leased estate, causing shares to fal.



FTSE 100 - Risers
ICAP (IAP) 346.00p +2.58%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,426.00p +2.15%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,165.00p +1.74%
Serco Group (SRP) 555.00p +1.65%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,091.00p +1.49%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,670.00p +1.25%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,405.00p +1.14%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,061.00p +1.13%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,091.50p +1.06%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 172.80p +1.02%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Evraz (EVR) 265.60p -2.57%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,495.00p -2.42%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 495.00p -2.08%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 325.60p -1.78%
Polymetal International (POLY) 795.50p -1.73%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,425.00p -1.66%
ITV (ITV) 71.10p -1.59%
Kingfisher (KGF) 274.50p -1.54%
Man Group (EMG) 75.65p -1.37%
Sage Group (SGE) 255.40p -1.28%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 69.85p +4.10%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 130.90p +2.99%
Essar Energy (ESSR) 115.60p +2.21%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 160.40p +2.17%
Amlin (AML) 330.50p +2.16%
Ruspetro (RPO) 150.60p +2.10%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 449.60p +2.09%
Rank Group (RNK) 119.10p +1.79%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 454.30p +1.50%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 48.18p +1.43%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Bumi (BUMI) 332.90p -8.79%
RPC Group (RPC) 372.90p -6.07%
Savills (SVS) 313.50p -4.04%
Lamprell (LAM) 75.60p -4.00%
Redrow (RDW) 109.50p -3.69%
Regus (RGU) 86.50p -3.57%
Fenner (FENR) 353.40p -3.39%
Persimmon (PSN) 572.00p -3.30%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 235.90p -3.20%
Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 46.25p -3.14%

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