Weak PMI figures from Europe and China add to investor uncertainty
In a cautious market, *Johnson Matthey* has accelerated by nearly 4% after growing car and truck production boosted its business.
The company - which specialises in catalysts to control car emissions, as well as platinum refining - said half year profits climbed 13% to £212.9m. Much of the gain came from customers pre-buying fuel efficient trucks ahead of European legislation coming into force in January. Finance director Robert MacLeod told Reuters the impact of this on the company's second half was unclear:
We have had a pull forward of orders into this half, or this calender year, ahead of the new legislation. No one really knows what is going to happen in (2014). The truck fleet in Europe is pretty old too - are some of these orders just getting the fleet back up to the right age?
The profit rise has pushed the company's shares 123p higher to £32.17, making it the biggest riser in the *FTSE 100*.
Overall the leading index has edged up 6.58 points to 6687.66, with investors nervous about the prospect of the US Federal Reserve tapering its $85bn a month bond buying programme, following Wednesday night's minutes from the central bank's last meeting.
There were also weak Chinese and European PMI figures to deal with.
Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said:
The [Fed] minutes showed tapering could come within the next few meetings on better data (although there was little change to economic assessment), with agreement that a lowering of the overnight interest rate on banks' excess reserves and a lower 6.5% unemployment threshold would be worth considering to help offset reductions in asset purchases.
The Fed continues to distinguish tapering from rate rises after the bad reception the idea of tapering got from the markets in the summer. We did wonder yesterday, with much build-up talk of patience before rate rises, thresholds not triggers and other measures to help maintain easy policy without QE3 at full throttle, was setting us up for an early move.
Elsewhere *Imperial Tobacco* is down 63p at £23.67 and *British American Tobacco* 63.5p lower at 3296.5p after a cautious update by US rival Philip Morris.
Miners were under pressure after the downbeat data from China, a key consumer of commodities. *Fresnillo* has fallen 26.5p to 878p while *Vedanta Resources* is down 28p at 923p.
Among the mid-caps *QinetiQ*, the defence technology group spun out of the Ministry of Defence, is up 14.1p to 210.8p despite a fall in half year profits from £85.6m to £52.3m. It said it was maintaining its full year guidance despite challenging markets. Chris Dyett at Investec said:
Qinetiq's interims were well signposted and the outturn is largely as expected. In summary – EMEA was solid, the US weak, but gently improving on restructuring, and Global Products was down heavily on a strong comparator. Net cash was higher than expected and the pension is being de-risked. We leave our 2014 profit forecasts largely unchanged, but there are risks involved. Our price target remains 220p. Buy retained.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 15 hours ago.
In a cautious market, *Johnson Matthey* has accelerated by nearly 4% after growing car and truck production boosted its business.
The company - which specialises in catalysts to control car emissions, as well as platinum refining - said half year profits climbed 13% to £212.9m. Much of the gain came from customers pre-buying fuel efficient trucks ahead of European legislation coming into force in January. Finance director Robert MacLeod told Reuters the impact of this on the company's second half was unclear:
We have had a pull forward of orders into this half, or this calender year, ahead of the new legislation. No one really knows what is going to happen in (2014). The truck fleet in Europe is pretty old too - are some of these orders just getting the fleet back up to the right age?
The profit rise has pushed the company's shares 123p higher to £32.17, making it the biggest riser in the *FTSE 100*.
Overall the leading index has edged up 6.58 points to 6687.66, with investors nervous about the prospect of the US Federal Reserve tapering its $85bn a month bond buying programme, following Wednesday night's minutes from the central bank's last meeting.
There were also weak Chinese and European PMI figures to deal with.
Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said:
The [Fed] minutes showed tapering could come within the next few meetings on better data (although there was little change to economic assessment), with agreement that a lowering of the overnight interest rate on banks' excess reserves and a lower 6.5% unemployment threshold would be worth considering to help offset reductions in asset purchases.
The Fed continues to distinguish tapering from rate rises after the bad reception the idea of tapering got from the markets in the summer. We did wonder yesterday, with much build-up talk of patience before rate rises, thresholds not triggers and other measures to help maintain easy policy without QE3 at full throttle, was setting us up for an early move.
Elsewhere *Imperial Tobacco* is down 63p at £23.67 and *British American Tobacco* 63.5p lower at 3296.5p after a cautious update by US rival Philip Morris.
Miners were under pressure after the downbeat data from China, a key consumer of commodities. *Fresnillo* has fallen 26.5p to 878p while *Vedanta Resources* is down 28p at 923p.
Among the mid-caps *QinetiQ*, the defence technology group spun out of the Ministry of Defence, is up 14.1p to 210.8p despite a fall in half year profits from £85.6m to £52.3m. It said it was maintaining its full year guidance despite challenging markets. Chris Dyett at Investec said:
Qinetiq's interims were well signposted and the outturn is largely as expected. In summary – EMEA was solid, the US weak, but gently improving on restructuring, and Global Products was down heavily on a strong comparator. Net cash was higher than expected and the pension is being de-risked. We leave our 2014 profit forecasts largely unchanged, but there are risks involved. Our price target remains 220p. Buy retained.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 15 hours ago.