Midday Market Snapshot

European equities extend gains from Wednesday ahead of highly anticipated ECB press conference this afternoon

Morningstar.co.uk Editors 2 December, 2010 | 12:36PM
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Market Snapshot
In Thursday morning trade European equity markets extended gains from the day before amid sustained hopes that the European Central Bank will inject liquidity into Europe’s troubled financial markets.

By midday, the FTSE 100 index had added 0.7% or 39 points to 5,681 and the FTSE 250 index was up 1.0% or 109 points to 10,918.

Eurostat’s first estimates for EU third quarter GDP showed no change from the flash GDP readings published two weeks ago. Eurozone growth slowed to 0.4% on a quarterly basis from 1% in the second quarter of 2010, with deceleration in capital formation, imports and exports growth.

Elsewhere on the common market, the European Central Bank is due to hold a press conference this afternoon and shed more light on comments about commitment to stabilise the eurozone, which have been fuelling investor confidence in the past two days. “There is a risk that the market could be disappointed today and rather than announce a new round of bond purchases (effectively quantitative easing) the ECB will simply reiterate that it will continue to provide unlimited liquidity to financial institutions that need it at a fixed rate of interest,” said Kathleen Brooks, Research Director at Gain Capital.

In London, the Purchasing Managers’ Index for construction showed subdued improvement for November compared to historic levels; constructors pointed to growth in new contracts being restricted by lengthy negotiation periods and deferred spending by clients, while employment levels in the sector are also falling.

US futures currently point to a stronger start on Wall Street, ahead of weekly jobless claims and pending home sales for October due later today.

Market Risers
TUI Travel (TT.), up 6.9%: Company results matched optimistic expectations, with operating profit rising 11% to £447 million as a result of synergy benefits from the merger between TUI AG's (TUI1) tourism business and First Choice Holidays in 2007, and reduced losses relating to its Canadian and German businesses.

GKN (GKN), up 4.6%: Shares sustain gains on the back of the company being awarded a multi-year contract to make lightweight titanium thrust links for the Boeing 747-8 and for both engine variants of the Boeing 787 on Monday.

Cobham (COB), up 4.0%: Shares recover losses from yesterday, having slipped following broker downgrades and trading ex-dividend.

Sage Group (SGE), up 2.4%: Wednesday’s strong results prompt brokers to upgrade estimates, including Numis Securities raising its recommendation to Add.

African Barrick Gold (ABG), Rio Tinto (RIO), Lonmin (LMI), up 2.2%-2.7%: Miners track commodity prices higher.

Rolls-Royce (RR.), up 0.2%: Shares recover after initially dropping following a Qantas Airways (QAN) statement that it has taken measures that would allow litigation against Rolls-Royce if it fails to reach a commercial settlement over the recent failure of a Trent 900 engine powering one of its A380 super jumbos.

Market Fallers
Shire (SHP), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), National Grid (NG.), down 0.3%-0.6%: Defensive stocks out of favour.

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