Lacklustre London

Ivaylo
10 Nov, 2006
New York City

Cairn Energy led the advancers on Friday as a leading bank said the IPO of the Indian operations oil group could lead to a re-rating. Platinum miner Lonmin, shot ahead supported by bid rumours, suggesting an offer could be in the offing soon. Anglo American rose strongly as the Oppenheimer family sold a third of its stake to China Vision Resources. In early afternoon, the FTSE 100 was broadly flat at 6,231.3.

[R]10:30AM London trades flat in early afternoon Friday despite bid speculation.[/R]
In early afternoon, the FTSE 100 in London was broadly flat at 6,231.3.

Advancers

Cairn Energy was among the biggest large-cap gainers on Friday as a leading bank said the IPO of the Indian operations oil group could lead to a re-rating. Cairn was the biggest blue-chip gainer, up 4.9%.

In a busy day for the resources sector, Lonmin advanced 8.6% as Morgan Stanley upped its price target in a bullish note on the platinum sector.

Anglo American, the mining group, rose 2.8% as one of the richest men in China took a stake in the company.

J Sainsbury gained 1.6% - its highest level since 1999 - amid continued talk of private equity interest for the UK third largest grocer.

Broadcaster ITV gained of 0.2% despite scepticism about how a proposed merger with NTL, the cable group, would work.

Decliners

AstraZeneca fell 2.8% and GlaxoSmithKline lost 1.8%. Utilities also lost ground at the end of a week of takeover speculation in the sector. Scottish Power this week said it had received an approach, with Iberdrola of Spain the suitor.

Severn Trent fell 1.7% and International Power slipped 1.6%. Whatman slumped 12.6% as the laboratory supplied group said that its earnings would fall short of expectations.

[R]7:30AM Asian markets end mostly lower on Japanese exporters and banks.[/R]
Asian markets were mostly lower on Friday. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average in Japan slipped 0.53% to 16,112.43. In Japan, shares dropped after the government said September core machinery orders fell 7.4% on month, worse than the consensus of economists for a 2.3% rise.

Exporter and banking stocks closed mostly lower, as Toyota Motor and Sony led declines among large-caps stocks, while Mitsubishi UFJ Group declined on data showed the Japanese bank lending advanced at a slower pace in October than the previous month. Toyota fell 1.8%, Sony lost 1.5% and Mitsubishi UFJ Group fell 0.7%.

Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was little changed at 18946.26. In Hong Kong, profit-taking in HSBC and China Mobile pulled the benchmark index slightly lower. HSBC slipped 0.4% and China Mobile fell 0.8%. Shares of Lenovo Group were down 9% after the third-largest PC maker in the world by sales reported quarterly net profit fell 16%. PetroChina, the biggest oil producer in the country, added 0.4%.

The China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed shares in mainland-incorporated companies advanced 0.6% to 7959.01. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which follows both Class A and Class B shares, ended down 0.7% at 1883.35. South Korea Kospi fell 0.3% to 1395.73. The South Korean stock market ended lower on profit-taking mainly in construction stocks, as the index approached the key psychological resistance level of 1400.

In Taiwan, the Weighted Price Index rose 0.3% to 7174.20 on late-session buying. Elsewhere around the region, Australia''s S&P/ASX 200 was fractionally higher, up 0.1% to 5434.50. Australian-listed oil company Woodside Petroleum surged 3.4% while mining and energy producer BHP Billiton rose 0.7%.

[R]6:30AM Pharma stocks and higher oil lead European stocks lower on Friday.[/R]
European markets were lower on Friday. By mid morning, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.5% to 6,201.8, while Frankfurt Xetra Dax fell 0.7% to 6,316.5, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.5% to 5,422.43.

Decliners

Pharma stocks led the decline. Bayer lost 0.3%, Novartis declined 1% and Roche shares dipped 0.3%. Roche decline was limited by an upgrade to overweight at J.P. Morgan, which argued that the quality of its drugs means it can keep pricing power. But it was AstraZeneca in Britain which was was worst hit, down 2.7%.

Hermes, the French luxury goods group, fell 3.2% on profit taking after reporting a 6.2% rise in like-for-like sales in the third quarter. German sportswear maker Adidas fell a further 2.4% following the unexpected profit warning Thursday. Deutsche fixed-line peers were also weaker. KPN, the Dutch group, lost 1%, while Telekom Austria fell 1.5%.

Electricite de France edged 0.4% lower in Paris after it said that, although sales in France rose 7.4% to 22.90 billion euros, sales in the rest of the world slipped 12% to 1.83 billion euros after asset sales.

Advancers

Oil prices stayed over $60 a barrel in electronic trade on Friday, helping Royal Dutch Shell and Eni to gain some ground. Eni, the Italian oil and natural gas group, rose 0.4%, while Royal Dutch Shell added 0.10%.

French chemicals group Rhodia rose 2.3% after it swung to a net profit of 71 million euros helped by a 34 million euro gain from deferred tax assets.

Oil and gold

Oil prices steadied Friday after jumping above $61 a barrel the previous day in reaction the leadership change in the U.S. Congress and amid continued uncertainties about OPEC production cuts. The contract traded at $60.32 a barrel in early trading in London, near a two-week high. Brent crude fell 84 cents to $60.48 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $634.30 a troy ounce, up from $625.20 late Thursday.

Currencies

The euro continued to edge up slightly against the U.S. dollar on Friday despite better-than-expected U.S. trade deficit figures. In morning trading, the euro bought $1.2873, up from $1.2824 late Thursday in New York. Among other currencies, the British pound rose to $1.9117 from $1.9055 after the Bank of England raised interest rates to 5%, as was expected. The dollar was down slightly to purchase 117.43 Japanese yen from 117.97 yen.

[R]5:30AM Gold and silver rallied on Thursday on climbing oil, lower dollar.[/R]
December gold gained $18.50 to end at $636.80 a troy ounce on the NYME. December silver added 50 cents to finish at $13.05 an ounce. Meanwhile, January platinum rose $33.70 to close at $1,201 an ounce, and December palladium climbed $10.50 to finish at $338.90 an ounce. December copper futures finished 6.45 cents higher at $3.3090 per pound.

The front-month December crude oil contract rose $1.33, or 2.2%, to finish at $61.16 a barrel. Front-month December unleaded gasoline rose 3.74 cents to finish at $1.6010 a gallon. Natural gas futures for December delivery settled 13.2 cents higher at $7.95 a million British thermal units.

At the New York Board of Trade, futures on raw sugar in foreign ports hurried to three-week highs with help from fund buying and short covering. Arabica coffee futures were also boosted by fund buying and short covering. December coffee futures closed 3.45 cents higher at $1.1920 a pound, and the March coffee contracts closed 3.45 cents higher at $1.2330 a pound.