London midday: Status quo maintained

7th Oct 2010 12:14

The Bank of England announcement on interest rate and quantitative easing (QE) policy was a non-event, with the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) electing to maintain the status quo.Leaving the base lending rate unchanged was no surprise but there was a slight possibility that QE would be resumed. With the MPC declining to oblige the QE optimists the market is back to its usual trick of looking to the US for a lead, but the picture there is just as mixed as it is in the UK, with the Dow Jones expected to open lower and the S&P 500 slightly higher. Speculation of more quantitative easing in the US has been pushing the dollar lately, which in turn has lifted metals prices. That has been lifting the miners, but the sector is weaker today, giving up some recent gains. Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys leads the sector lower. Indian miner Vedanta is holding up though after saying it produced record amounts of zinc, lead and aluminium during the second quarter. In the three months to 30 September it grew refined zinc output by 25% to 176,000 tonnes to make it 341,000 tonnes for the half-year, an increase of almost 22%.There has been good news from one of the Footsie's stalwarts. Like for like sales growth at high street bellwether Marks & Spencer's UK stores were well ahead of market expectations in the third quarter. UK like for like (LFL) sales had been expected to be up year on year by anywhere between 1.3% and 4.6%; M&S delivered a 5.3% increase in the 13 weeks to 2 October.Oil titan BP has signed a deal with Azerbaijan's state oil company to explore and develop a deep water gas area in the Caspian Sea.Today's big movers are to be found in the FTSE 250. Rank is higher after strong trading across its divisions helped the casino and bingo hall operator to a 7% rise in like-for-like sales in the third quarter, leaving it confident for the full year despite challenging economic conditions.Latin America-focused precious metal miner Hochschild is shining after saying it has made a number of high-grade finds at its San Jose operation in southern Argentina which should "materially increase mine life".Car parts and bikes seller Halfords is lower after an update showed it is finding it an uphill struggle at the moment and slightly harder than analysts had imagined following recent warehouse disruption. Like for like sales fell 5.8% during the second quarter following a 4.5% drop at the retail business and 1.5% decline at Autocentres. Analysts were looking for 4-5%. Shares in Victrex have melted away despite the fast growing plastics group's trading update saying it expects group profits for 2010 to be in line with market expectations. Full year sales volume in the year to end-September stacked up to about 2,535 tonnes, slightly below the 2,550 tonnes broker KBC Peel Hunt had forecast. Recruitment firm Michael Page raised profit by 37% during the third quarter and had its best month of 2010 in September as the temp business began to grow again, but the shares are lower.So are peer Hays'. The UK and Ireland are letting the side down at international recruitment firm, which otherwise saw strong growth in fees across all its geographic regions in the third quarter.Construction and engineering group Carillion says it has its strongest ever pipeline of contract opportunities as Britain's public sector looks to cut back on costs by outsourcing work.FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 251.10p +5.64%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 401.50p +2.74%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 133.70p +1.83%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 396.10p +1.77%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,022.00p +1.69%ICAP (IAP) 456.60p +1.58%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,293.00p +1.57%International Power (IPR) 404.70p +1.35%Prudential (PRU) 651.50p +1.32%Centrica (CNA) 325.90p +1.27%FTSE 100 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 1,405.00p -5.26%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,274.00p -2.97%ARM Holdings (ARM) 380.70p -2.21%Wolseley (WOS) 1,618.00p -2.12%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 74.99p -1.83%Bunzl (BNZL) 757.50p -1.43%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 629.50p -1.33%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 48.89p -1.21%Cairn Energy (CNE) 447.10p -1.15%BAE Systems (BA.) 351.40p -1.13%