logo-loader

FTSE 100 seen higher ahead of interest rate announcements from ECB & Bank of England

Published: 16:46 05 Aug 2010 AEST

no_picture_pai

The FTSE 100 is seen 0.2% higher after shedding as much on Wednesday.

Part-nationalized bank Lloyds (LON:LLOY) emerged atop the leaderboard with a 3.6% gain. Gold miners Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) added 3%. Silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) and base metal miner Eurasian Natural Resources (LON:ENRC) rose 2.5%. Oil and gas engineering firms Amec (LON:AMEC) and Petrofac (LON:PFC) advanced 2%. Food manufacturer Unilever (LON:ULVR) and Financial Times publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) moved up 1.5%.

Clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT) was the heaviest faller among the blue chips with a 7.7% loss after issuing a trading statement. Bank Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) followed, sliding 5.2%. Home Retail Group (LON:HOME) and retailer Kingfisher (LON:KGF) followed with losses of 3.8% and 3.4% respectively. Satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat (LON:ISAT), pharmaceutical company Shire (LON:SHP) and retailer Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) dropped 3%. Commercial property company British Land (LON:BLND) and insurer Aviva (LON:AV) declined 2.6% and 2.3% respectively.

US stocks were on the rise yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.4%, the broader S&P 500 index climbed 0.6% and the technology heavy NASDAQ composite advanced 0.9%.

Asian markets were mixed this morning. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was sitting just below the opening level, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.45%, South Korea’s KOSPI was down 0.3%, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rallied 1.7% and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.55%.

Commodities

Oil prices declined. US light, sweet crude for September delivery slid to US$82.23/barrel, while September Brent Crude was just below US$82/barrel.

Precious metals were slightly lower. Gold slid to US$1,194/oz, while silver and platinum declined to US$18.25/oz and US$1,571/oz respectively.

Base metals headed in different directions. Copper moved down to US$3.36/lb, while nickel and zinc advanced to US$9.88/lb and US$0.94/lb respectively.

The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will announce their interest rate decisions today. US weekly jobless claims are also due to be released today.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

5 hours, 19 minutes ago