After the week’s gains so far, leading shares are taking a breather.
Financial shares are among the fallers following lower than expected quarterly earnings from US payments technology group Verifone. The news has sent Worldpay down 4.8p to 275.6p, while banks are under pressure with Royal Bank of Scotland 4.5p lower at 225.2p and Barclays falling 2.25p to 178p.
Overall the FTSE 100 is currently down 7.42 points at 6277.11, despite better than expected UK manufacturing and industrial production figures.
Mining shares are edging higher despite weak Chinese trade data, with Glencore up 3.05p at 143.05p and Anglo American adding 11.7p to 677.2p. Commodity companies are also benefiting from another rise in oil prices. Brent crude is up 0.12% at $51.5, helped by a weaker dollar, a larger than expected fall in US inventories and worries about militant attacks on pipelines in Nigeria.
So Royal Dutch Shell B shares are up 28p at 1792.5p but travel companies are lower on concerns about dearer fuel costs. British Airways owner International Airlines has dipped 0.5p to 521p and easyJet is down 16p at £15.05.
Sainsbury has reversed earlier gains following its latest update and is now down 3.4p at 243.3p, while WH Smith has lost 53p to £16.87 after reporting flat like for like sales in the 14 weeks to the start of June. Analysts at Investec said:
Another robust trading performance from WH Smith with the the third quarter update (14 weeks to 4 June) in line with expectations. Travel has good momentum ahead of its key summer trading period and High Street continues to be tightly managed. No change to forecasts expected. Despite strong, defensive cash generation, we see valuation (2017 estimated PE 16.3 times) up with short-term earnings momentum and it is difficult to see material upside from here without M&A activity within Travel. We maintain our hold recommendation.
But Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling is 28p better at £14.38 after Credit Suisse recently raised its target price from £14.80 to £15 after what the bank called an upbeat investor day.
