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(Alliance News) -Â The FTSE 100 was looking directionless at midday on Thursday after a morning dipping in and out the red, though London's leading stock index had managed to shake off a disastrous set of PMI readings for the UK and Europe.
Focus turns to US economic data due later, with the latest weekly round of jobless claims expected to clock in at over 4 million.
At midday, the FTSE 100 index was down 11.22 points, or 0.2%, at 5,759.41. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 99.05 points, or 0.6%, at 15,685.19. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.5% at 769.48.
The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 9,741.78. The Cboe 250 was up 1.0% at 13,525.11, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.6% at 8,788.31.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.1% lower Thursday afternoon.
"If you had told an investor on 1 January that, within a few months, global PMIs would dive to a fraction of their previous level, they would have thought you mad. What is equally confusing perhaps is the way markets seem to have taken today's incredible readings in their stride, or at least in a relatively calm fashion," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG.
"The rebound from the March lows began to come under some pressure this week, but despite signs of a growing sell-off on Tuesday it seems like the pull-back from the mid-April highs is resolving into a temporary consolidation, similar to what we saw at the end of March," said Beauchamp.
A raft of data from IHS Markit showed the economy has all but seized up due to virus pandemic.
Covid-19 lockdowns resulted in UK private sector activity slumping to previously unseen levels, figures showed. The IHS Markit/Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply flash composite purchasing managers' index for April collapsed to a record low of 12.9 from 36.0 in March.
Prior to March, the survey's record low was 38.1, hit in November 2008.
Around 81% of UK service providers and 75% of manufacturing companies reported a fall in business activity during April, a decline which was overwhelmingly attributed to Covid-19.
In the eurozone, the composite PMI slumped to just 13.5 in April from 29.7 in March, marking a record low for the series. FXStreet consensus had seen the reading at 25.7.
By comparison, the lowest reading seen during the global financial crisis was 36.2, reached in February 2009, IHS Markit highlighted.
The "unprecedented" collapse in activity was broad-based across the eurozone, with Germany and France's composite PMIs slumping to all-time lows of 17.1 and 11.2 respectively.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.2335 following the data, slightly higher against USD1.2323 at the London equities close on Wednesday. The euro traded at USD1.0769, down on USD1.0829 late Wednesday.
Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY107.59, lower versus JPY107.81.
US initial jobless claims are due at 1330 BST, a PMI reading for the US set for 1445 BST.
"The latest US weekly jobless claims are unlikely to offer any respite to the huge numbers of job losses seen in the last four weeks. The hope is that we've seen the high-water mark and it is to be hoped that the number of job losses in the US economy could well start to level off. Expectations are for another 4.5 million claims. With an unemployment rate likely to surge well above 10% at next month's payrolls report, US officials will be hoping that the claims numbers start to slow in the coming weeks," commented Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.
Wall Street is called for a cautiously higher start on Thursday. The Dow Jones is seen up 0.1%, the S&P 500 up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.1%.
In London, housebuilders were heading up the FTSE 100 with Taylor Wimpey leading the way, up 8.6%.
Taylor Wimpey said it plans to restart work on its building sites the week beginning May 4 with its own staff following new safety guidelines, while subcontractors will resume the following week.
The housebuilder's order book has continued to increase and for the week to April 19 its total value stood at GBP2.68 billion versus GBP2.40 billion a year ago.
Barratt Developments, Persimmon and Berkeley were up 6.4%, 5.5% and 2.3% respectively in a positive read-across.
Mid-cap housebuilder Vistry was up 8.0%. Formerly known as Bovis Homes, the firm said it has maintained a low level of activity on its Partnership sites since late March, and expects to be active on around 90% of sites within the division by next week.
Since the lockdown started four weeks prior, Vistry said it has taken up 212 gross private reservations, resulting in 132 reservations net of cancellations. In addition, the group has exchanged on 170 homes and legally completed a total of 193 private sales.
At the bottom of the FTSE 100 was Legal & General, down 6.7% as the stock went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
Hargreaves Lansdown was 3.0% lower after Deutsche Bank cut the fund supermarket to Sell from Hold.
Just Eat Takeaway.com dipped 2.3% as it raised EUR700 million through a share and convertible bond offering, while UK monopoly regulators cleared the merger that created the current company.
The Anglo-Dutch food delivery tie-up placed 4.6 million shares at EUR87.00 each, raising EUR400.2 million.
Just Eat PLC and Takeaway.com merged earlier this year. Takeaway.com won a bidding war for Just Eat in January, beating off Johannesburg- and Amsterdam-listed media and internet investor Prosus.
The two companies were initially forced to halt integration, following an order for the CMA. However, the monopoly regulator last Thursday said it had lifted the enforcement, meaning the recent food delivery tie-up was free to begin its integration.
Brent oil was trading at USD21.72 a barrel midday Thursday, up from USD20.44 late Wednesday - having dipped as low as USD15.97 this week, its worst level since 1999.
Gold was quoted at USD1,726.45 an ounce, higher than USD1,708.20 on Wednesday.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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