Leading shares are heading towards another record high, but Merlin Entertainments is losing its magic.
The operator of Madame Tussauds and Legoland, which joined the FTSE 100 earlier this month after Friends Life was taken over by Aviva, is down 1.6% or 7.6p to 446.3p. The falls follows a downgrade from overweight to neutral by JP Morgan Cazenove with a 450p price target.
Overall though the FTSE 100 is up 27.60 points at 7081.27, helped by Nasdaq’s record breaking close overnight and despite continuing uncertainties over the UK election and the latest make or break meeting between Greece and its creditors.
Mining shares are supporting the market once more, mainly on hopes of further stimulus from Chinese authorities to boost the country’s flagging economy as well as a recovery in iron ore prices. Anglo American has added 28.5p to 1090.5p, while BHP Billiton is 37p better at 1568.5p.
Analyst Tony Cross at Trustnet Direct said:
The FTSE-100 is certainly making a good start to the week’s final session with heavyweight mining stocks leading the charge once again. Iron Ore prices have pushed out to a one month high, but whether this alone actually warrants a rebound of this scale is certainly open for debate.
As for the day ahead, US durable goods orders will be worth watching and any notable miss here could raise further questions over the Federal Reserve’s aspirations to hike interest rates any time soon, in turn giving global equities something to cheer. We’ve also got that EcoFin meeting taking place in Riga this afternoon so any signs of progress with regard to Greece may again be well received.
HSBC is up 16.2p at 628.4p as it holds its annual meeting, with a statement including the line that it is considering whether to move its headquarters from the UK due to regulatory concerns and worries about the country’s EU membership.
Standard Chartered has added 29p to £10.91 on speculation it too could move away.
But Lloyds Banking Group is 0.18p lower at 78.81p as the government cut its stake by another 1% to below 21%. Investec analyst Ian Gordon said:
Although the pace has slowed a touch (constrained by market volumes), selldown of the UK government’s residual stake has continued. Over the past month, a further 0.7bn shares (worth around £0.6bn) have been sold, leaving 15.0bn shares (20.95%) worth £11.8bn still to go. Under current Conservative Party proposals, a further £9bn is due to be sold over the next 12 months, including a £4bn public offer. As such, by end-2016, it appears reasonable to expect that the government may be out in full.
AstraZeneca is down 129.5p at 4700.5p after first quarter sales fell 6% - albeit slightly better than forecast - with some revenues coming from selling rights to research.
Elsewhere French Connection has slumped nearly 15% to 45p after it warned full year results would be below market estimates due to continuing challenging trading.
