London midday: Footsie up as pound slips on retail shock, Catalonia and ECB eyed
London stocks had picked up by midday on Thursday as some encouraging news filtered through from Spain and investors gave a sanguine eye to the looming announcement from the European Central Bank on monetary policy.
At noon the FTSE was up 0.45% at 7,480.86, helped by the pound falling 0.3% against the euro to 1.1191 and 0.35% weaker versus the dollar at 1.3215.
Reports filtered through that Catalonia may hold regional elections on 20 December, potentially delaying a declaration of independence, lifting the Ibex and other European equity indices.
"This is being cheered by the markets as it suggests that Puigdemont and co prefer to stake their political reputations on re-election rather than independence at this junction," said analyst Kathleen Brooks at City Index.
This potential move, suggesting the region's political bigwigs would rather get an official mandate before they pursue the costly and legally complex route to independence matters for the markets as it kicks a potential political cinder box down the road to the end of 2018, Brooks said.
The only UK macroeconomic news was some disappointing retail industry data from the CBI, showing the lowest year-on-year sales performance since 2009, which was a weight on the pound.
Mario Draghi's star turn was still to come, with the ECB rate announcement at 1245 BST and the press conference at 1330 BST.
Further tapering of the ECB's monthly bond buying scheme has been flagged by Draghi and co.
Analyst Connor Campbell at Spreadex said: "One potential scenario is that the bond buying continues until at least September 2018, but at €20bn or €30bn a month rather than the current €60bn (which itself is down from €80bn at the start of the year).
"This potential ‘extend but reduce’ approach seems to have tentatively pleased the euro."
Among individual shares, British American Tobacco was top of the blue chip leaderboard as analysts from the likes of JPMorgan Cazenove and Citi waxed lyrical after the group's capital markets day, where guidance on 'next generation' products was bumped up.
Miners, led by Rio Tinto and Anglo American, were bouncing back after falls the previous day, with metal price fluctuations seen as the driver, copper in particular.
Consumer goods giant Unilever racked up gains after saying its offer to buy back the bulk of its Dutch preference shares for around €450m had been declared unconditional.
Information and analytics company Relx edged higher after it reported continued underlying revenue growth in the first nine months of 2017 and reaffirmed its outlook for the full year.
National Express chugged to a two-month high as it lifted pre-tax profit 12% in the third quarter.
Bodycote spiked as it reported a 17% jump in third-quarter revenue and reaffirmed its outlook for the year before profit taking kicked in with the shares in a channel around 18-year highs .
Kaz Minerals rose after lifting its copper and gold guidance, while Acacia Mining was higher after parent Barrick Gold gave a few more details about its pact with the government of Tanzania to try and lift the gold export ban.
Sirius Minerals was shooting higher as it announced an offtake agreement for its future fertiliser output.
On the other side of the coin, Barclays slumped after third-quarter profits came in lower than expected as its investment banking business faced difficult markets, only partly offset by an improvement in the UK bank and the consumer credit arm.
Barratt Developments, Ferguson, Galliford Try, ITV and William Hill were all weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.
Rare disease specialist Shire nudged down as it announced that the European Commission has approved a label extension granting a new indication for FIRAZYR (icatibant injection), broadening its use to adolescents and children aged two years and older, with hereditary angioedema (HAE) caused by C1-esterase-inhibitor (C1-INH) deficiency.
GlaxoSmithKline was down a day after its third-quarter numbers, with Credit Suisse lowering its estimates and cutting its target price to 1,600p from 1,725p.
Car dealership Inchcape was on the back foot despite posting a 15% rise in third-quarter revenue.
Fidessa was in the red after saying that constant currency revenue growth for 2017 is likely to be around the levels as the previous year, and that it is well placed to benefit from the opportunities that will arise in the market as a result of regulatory and structural change.
Redefine, the income-focussed real estate investment trust, fell after it posted a rise in its full-year profit but a drop in its dividend.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,475.21 0.38%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,115.75 0.21%
techMARK (TASX) 3,503.38 0.04%
FTSE 100 - Risers
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,950.50p 2.21%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,572.00p 2.16%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,443.50p 2.01%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,158.50p 1.71%
Centrica (CNA) 170.40p 1.49%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 770.70p 1.46%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,369.50p 1.26%
Relx plc (REL) 1,704.00p 1.19%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 415.50p 1.09%
Pearson (PSON) 712.50p 1.06%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Barclays (BARC) 185.45p -5.86%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 665.50p -4.72%
Old Mutual (OML) 187.20p -1.68%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,409.50p -1.36%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,901.00p -1.16%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 662.00p -0.82%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,946.00p -0.80%
Kingfisher (KGF) 310.80p -0.77%
Shire Plc (SHP) 3,570.00p -0.75%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,180.00p -0.67%
FTSE 250 - Risers
National Express Group (NEX) 365.10p 6.51%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 194.20p 5.20%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 27.50p 4.48%
Rank Group (RNK) 229.30p 3.43%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 353.00p 3.34%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 227.80p 3.03%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 854.00p 2.40%
Greencore Group (GNC) 194.30p 2.26%
FirstGroup (FGP) 109.90p 1.85%
Computacenter (CCC) 999.50p 1.83%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,265.00p -5.03%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 211.00p -2.99%
Inchcape (INCH) 781.50p -2.98%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 350.40p -2.56%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 295.30p -2.41%
NewRiver REIT (NRR) 330.50p -2.05%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,552.00p -1.58%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 283.00p -1.32%
Man Group (EMG) 186.40p -1.22%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 608.00p -1.22%