Lloyds Banking Group ShareCast News (LLOY)



ShareCast News for Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY)


Share Price: 61.78Bid: 61.74Ask: 61.79Change: 0.02 (+0.03%)Riser - Lloyds Grp.
Spread: 0.05Spread as %: 0.08%Open: 61.00High: 62.41Low: 60.57Yesterday’s Close: 61.76




London open: Markets cautious ahead central bank decisions

Thu, 5th Jul 2012 08:35

- BoE expected to increase QE

- ECB predicted to slash rates

- GKN rockets after Volvo Aero acquisition

The FTSE 100 was flat in early trading on Thursday with markets cautious ahead of policy decisions in both the UK and Europe due after midday.

The Bank of England's (BoE's) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is predicted to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5% but ramp up its asset purchase programme by £50bn to £375bn. "Financial markets have become increasingly convinced that another slug of QE is on its way, and the MPC has done nothing to dissuade investors from this view," according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to cut the refinancing rate from the current level of 1.0%. Gerhard Schwarz, head of Equity Strategy at Baader Bank, said: "The most likely outcome in our view is a 25 basis point cut. A bigger cut would increase pressure on the ECB to move towards 'unconventional' stimulus - something the ECB has been very reluctant to do recently. So with the refi rate standing at 0.75% the ECB could still argue to have some firepower left."

FTSE 100: GKN surges early on



Global engineering firm GKN jumped over 12% after saying it had agreed to buy Volvo's aero engine division and would turn to institutional investors to raise money to help pay for it. Arden Partners upgraded its rating on the stock this morning to 'buy'.

GKN plans to pay AB Volvo around £633m for Volvo Aero, which designs, engineers and manufactures components for aircraft engine turbines. To help fund the deal GKN aims to place £140m of new shares with institutional investors, with the rest of the money coming from new debt facilities.

Shareholders of Xstrata were clearly pleased with the group's decision to adjourn its extraordinary general meeting until a later date, with the stock rising early on. Shareholders were due to vote on the the Xstrata-Glencore merger on July 4th.

Utilitiy giant Centrica fell after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to 'neutral' and cut its target price from 441p to 422p.

Banks were out of favour early on with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Standard Chartered among the worst performers. Barclays edged higher this morning following the sharp falls seen over the past week. Over the last seven days, the stock has dropped over 14% on the back of the LIBOR scandal.

FTSE 250: Dunlem sees strong Q4 sales



Homewares retailer Dunelm advanced after saying that total revenue increased 21.2% in the fourth quarter of the group's fiscal year, boosted by the unusually wet weather. However, the group cautioned that it expects consumer spending to remain under pressure.

Ahead of its annual general meeting today, Great Portland Estates has revealed its net asset value per share and portfolio valuation are on the up, causing shares to rise.



FTSE 100 - Risers

GKN (GKN) 209.30p +12.17%

Tate & Lyle (TATE) 666.00p +1.52%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 891.50p +1.13%

Reed Elsevier (REL) 525.00p +0.86%

Xstrata (XTA) 826.60p +0.71%

Wolseley (WOS) 2,447.00p +0.62%

BAE Systems (BA.) 294.10p +0.58%

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,340.00p +0.53%

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 307.90p +0.49%

Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,294.00p +0.47%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Evraz (EVR) 256.50p -3.75%

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 212.10p -1.12%

ICAP (IAP) 327.60p -1.03%

Centrica (CNA) 314.50p -1.01%

United Utilities Group (UU.) 667.50p -0.89%

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 31.38p -0.88%

Vodafone Group (VOD) 179.00p -0.83%

Severn Trent (SVT) 1,649.00p -0.66%

Vedanta Resources (VED) 936.00p -0.64%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,124.00p -0.62%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Dunelm Group (DNLM) 536.00p +4.69%

Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 564.50p +2.26%

Dixons Retail (DXNS) 18.11p +1.57%

Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 125.90p +1.53%

Cape (CIU) 273.70p +1.41%

New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 338.30p +1.32%

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 497.70p +1.16%

Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,299.00p +1.09%

Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,774.00p +1.06%

Shaftesbury (SHB) 531.50p +1.05%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Michael Page International (MPI) 365.10p -3.90%

Man Group (EMG) 65.35p -3.26%

Betfair Group (BET) 727.00p -3.20%

Hays (HAS) 74.10p -3.01%

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 700.50p -2.91%

Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 46.82p -2.90%

TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 185.10p -2.58%

Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 126.00p -2.33%

Raven Russia Ltd (RUS) 58.15p -2.10%

Afren (AFR) 107.80p -2.09%

BC








Thursday broker round-up

Ashtead Group: Jefferies takes target price from 690p to 750p and leaves its buy recommendation unchanged.
[1 Hour Ago]

London open: 'Tapering' concerns hit markets hard as Fed signals end to QE

Markets across Europe dropped sharply in early trading on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke last night signalled that the central bank could soon start to scale back its quantitative easing (QE) programme.
[1 Hour Ago]

Bank regulator identifies 27bn-pound capital shortfall at five UK banks

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) said that five of the major eight banks in the UK fell short of their capital requirements at the end of 2012 with a combined shortfall of 27.1bn pounds.
[1 Hour Ago]

Thursday newspaper round-up : Lloyds, RBS, BT, Dolce and Gabbana

Chancellor George Osborne has signalled the prospect of the first stages of the privatisation of Lloyds Banking Group, The Telegraph reported. He hinted the sale of the state-backed lender's shares within months, saying the bank was in a good position for selling down the taxpayer's 39% internet. However, he warned that he would urgently look into a break-up of tax-payer backed Royal Bank of Scotland into a "good bank and bad bank".
[3 Hours Ago]

London close: Markets move higher with Fed decision in focus

After a subdued start, the FTSE 100 finished with impressive gains on Tuesday as investors put aside worries ahead of the key 'risk event' of the week, the monetary policy meeting at the Federal Reserve.
[Tue 17:04]

Sector movers: Banks gain on China rate-cut speculation

Banking stocks were in demand on Tuesday on the back of reports that China could move to cut interest rates in an effort to combat a slowdown.
[Tue 15:14]

FTSE 100 movers: Whitbread jumps as Costa drives strong first-quarter growth

Whitbread was performing well on Tuesday after the company reported a decent first quarter with group sales up 13.8 per cent, boosted by growth at Premier Inn and another strong performance from Costa which saw sales jump by an impressive 24.8 per cent.
[Tue 14:34]

Lloyds denies political pressure to sell branches to Co-op

Lloyds Bank Group has slammed claims it has been under political pressure to sell hundreds of branches to the Co-operative Group.
[Tue 13:51]




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