Leading shares are struggling for direction as investors await the latest developments in the continuing Greek saga.
The next key event is Sunday’s referendum on whether to accept creditors’ proposals, proposals which are technically not on the table any more. But with the political temperature rising, any further comments from either Greece or its creditors have the possibility to move global markets.
On top of that come US jobs figures, a day early because of the Independence Day holiday on Friday. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said:
Yesterday’s ADP employment report reinforced the picture of a positive labour market with 237,000 jobs added, the best number this year. The latest ISM manufacturing report was also much better than expected.
Today’s US employment report is expected to be similarly positive, after a decent May number of 280,000. Expectations are for 230,000 new jobs to be added, with the unemployment rate set to fall to 5.4%.
It is the wages data that is expected to get the main attention though with average hourly earnings expected to remain steady at 2.3%. A number higher than that could well give the US dollar a hefty nudge upwards, as well as raising the prospect of a Fed move on rates at its September meeting.
So the FTSE 100 is currently down just 1.57 points at 6607.02, slipping back despite June’s UK construction PMI index rising to a four month high.
Intertek is the biggest faller, down 82p at £23.80 after analysts at Jefferies cut their target price on the testing equipment specialist from £24 to £21 with a hold rating.
A number of companies have gone ex-dividend including Royal Mail, down 14.5p at 503p, Burberry, 35p lower at £15.56 and Babcock International, off 24p at £10.68.
But Dixons Carphone is leading the FTSE 100 risers, up 15.8p at 474.6p after signing a deal with US group Sprint to run stores for the mobile operator in America.
Lower down the market BATM Advanced Communications has climbed 12% to 17p as it unveiled a contract to supply a cyber-security service to a government defense agency. The deal is worth $3.7m initially but could rise to $20m over the next five years. Analysts at finnCap said:
This contract was part of the pipeline of work expected by the company so we are not raising our forecasts at this stage; however, it helps to firm up results and builds confidence in the group’s commercialisation of an excellent cyber-security offering based on its 10G networking platform and its proprietary software. We reiterate our 20p target price.
