- Lloyds falls on tough outlook for 2012.- Consumer product groups Unilever, Reckitt sold off.- BoE's Fisher thinks outlook is 'incredibly uncertain'. The Footsie was trading just a few points higher by midday on Friday, as a decline in consumer products stocks, miners and Lloyds was offset by a strong performance by Hammerson, Capita and a host of oil groups. Gains have been extended after strong-than-expected labour and housing data Stateside lifted the Footsie 0.36% higher yesterday. US stock futures are pointing to a positive start on Wall Street."With an improvement in US jobs and housing figures yesterday positive feelings returned to the market with stocks rallying and treasuries making up an early deficit," said broker Jonathan Bristow from Valbury Capital. "Globally news seemed to be flowing nicely towards the final day of the week without having to use the words 'Debt crisis' or 'Euro-zone bailout' which is a relief for those of us out there who have ran out of different ways of reporting that we're up a creek and the paddle is gone," he said. In domestic news, the Bank of England's Markets Director, Paul Fisher, has said he remains open minded to a further round of quantitative easing (QE), or whether they should stop. "We may get surprises, positive or negative, before then which causes us to change our mind, but at the moment I would have a completely open mind going into the next round whether or not we need to (do more)," he said in an interview with City AM. He described the economic outlook as being "incredibly uncertain", adding that he feels,"slightly more comfortable about the inflation outlook than the outlook for growth." Meanwhile, in Eurozone news, European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said that a turning point has been reached in the sovereign debt crisis and that Eurozone countries must now follow up with the implementation of austerity measures in order to assure an end to the saga.LLOYDS TAKES A TUMBLE ON TOUGH OUTLOOK Lloyds Banking Group said it expects the external environment to remain challenging this year and has had to delay its return on equity and income-related targets beyond 2014. Meanwhile, the lender reported a steep loss for 2011, dragged down by substantial charges in relation to Payment Protect Insurance (PPI). The statutory pre-tax loss came in at £3,542m, compared with a profit of £281m last year, and includes a £3.2bn non-recurring provision for PPI contact and redress costs. Sector peer RBS was flat after disappointing with its full-year results yesterday, while Barclays was making decent gains.Real estate investment trust Hammerson was the high riser early on after saying that it is to sell its offices investments to focus on its retail operations in the UK and France. The change in strategy was announced with the company's 2011 results in which it unveiled a 7.1% increase in adjusted net asset value per share (NAV) on a European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA)-sanctioned basis. Unilever was the worst performing blue-chip, however, after US rival Procter and Gamble unveiled plans to cut costs extensively and expand its presence in emerging markets. Macro Gulpers, an analyst at Dutch finance house thinks the US firm's initiatives spell bad news for the Anglo-Dutch household goods leviathan "just as Unilever was about to catch up" with P and G. Sector peer Reckitt Benckiser was also on the fall after Goldman Sachs downgraded the consumer products group from buy to neutral. Miners on the whole were down, with Randgold Resources, Evraz and Rio Tinto leading the decline. However, close friends Glencore and Xstrata were bucking the trend after saying that they do not expect their merger to have a negative impact on competition in the commodity markets in which the two operate. After constructive consultation with the European Commission (EC), the merger will now be notified to the EC under the European Union merger regulation, Glencore announced this morning.Oil giants Essar Energy, BG and BP were making gains as crude prices continued to rise. Brent crude futures were gaining 0.11% by midday at the $123.760 level on the InterContinental Europe exchange. The latter was higher despite apparently experiencing unplanned flaring and a breakdown at its Carson refinery in California.Scottish engineering giant Weir, which on Thursday raised its offer to buy Australian mining equipment supplier Ludowici, rose after agreeing to give the Ludowici board more time to consider the bid. Weir has informed Ludowici that its offer will now remain open for acceptance until six hours after a decision from the current sitting Takeovers Panel on the bid from Danish competitor FLSmidth is made public.FTSE 250: BERENDSEN JUMPS WHILE AQUARIUS TANKS Textile services firm Berendsen has reported a rise in both revenue and pre-tax profit for the full year ended December 31st. Profit before tax rose to £79.3m from £34.6m the previous year, while revenue gained 1% from £986.1m to £992m. Shares were up 10%. Heading the other way was miner Aquarius Platinum which said that the Indigenisation Implementation Plan its indirect 50% subsidiary submitted to the government of Zimbabwe in November 2011 has been rejected. Mimosa Holdings had submitted a plan outlining how it would meet the country's law requiring foreign miners to sell 51% of their assets to entities designated by the government.BCFTSE 100 - RisersEssar Energy (ESSR) 125.90p +3.54%Hammerson (HMSO) 399.10p +3.47%Capita (CPI) 740.50p +3.13%ITV (ITV) 80.10p +2.96%Aggreko (AGK) 2,261.00p +2.54%Barclays (BARC) 247.00p +2.49%Amec (AMEC) 1,112.00p +2.21%GKN (GKN) 233.10p +2.10%British Land Co (BLND) 480.60p +1.97%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 109.00p +1.87%FTSE 100 - FallersUnilever (ULVR) 2,030.00p -2.87%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,420.00p -2.29%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,350.00p -2.00%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,318.00p -1.93%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.98p -1.61%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 396.60p -1.15%Carnival (CCL) 1,880.00p -0.90%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,430.00p -0.83%Vodafone Group (VOD) 172.15p -0.78%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,663.50p -0.72%FTSE 250 - RisersBerendsen (BRSN) 506.00p +9.52%Logica (LOG) 88.05p +6.73%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 393.80p +5.01%SIG (SHI) 117.70p +3.98%Soco International (SIA) 348.90p +3.81%Premier Farnell (PFL) 227.30p +3.60%Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,318.00p +3.45%EnQuest (ENQ) 128.90p +3.12%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 60.30p +2.99%Bodycote (BOY) 400.00p +2.75%FTSE 250 - FallersAquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 134.00p -8.28%Fenner (FENR) 468.20p -2.82%ITE Group (ITE) 234.00p -2.74%Kentz Corporation Ltd. (KENZ) 473.30p -2.61%Hays (HAS) 85.10p -2.52%Computacenter (CCC) 404.40p -1.96%Rightmove (RMV) 1,314.00p -1.94%Bellway (BWY) 791.50p -1.86%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 26.23p -1.69%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.65 -1.69%
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