LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: FTSE 100 Higher As Focus Turns To Fed And BoE

LONDON (Alliance News) - Airline stocks and gold miner Fresnillo were leading the FTSE 100 higher at midday on Tuesday, despite Just Eat and Centrica dragging at the other end."Today is the belated start to the week, with a raft of economic and corporate announcements coming thick and fast from here on in. The threat of a shock tightening from the Bank of Japan weighed on markets in yesterday's trade, yet with Kuroda and co deciding to make only slight alterations, we have seen one of the main event risks safely overcome," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.To come are decisions from the Federal Reserve and Bank of England on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.4%, or 31.73 points, at 7,732.58. The FTSE 250 index was flat, just 9.24 points higher at 20,887.49. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.2% at 1,093.80.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.4% at 13,112.05, the Cboe UK 250 up 0.1% at 19,008.01, and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 12,390.02.In mainland Europe on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.1% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.1% at midday.Eurozone inflation rose to its highest level since late 2012, surpassing the European Central Bank's target of 'below, but close' to 2% for a second consecutive month.The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 2.1% year-on-year in July, expected by economists to remain unchanged from 2% in June. The latest inflation figure was the highest since December 2012, when it came in at 2.2%.The biggest inflation rate was for energy at 9.4%, up from 8%, while food inflation eased to 2.5% from 2.7%. Core inflation, excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, accelerated to 1.1% in July from 0.9% in June.Meanwhile, the eurozone economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the second quarter.Gross domestic product grew 0.3% from the first quarter, undershooting expectations for steady 0.4% growth, in line with the first quarter. On a yearly basis, GDP growth eased to 2.1% from 2.5% in the previous quarter, again slightly below forecasts for a 2.2% rise.The unemployment rate was firm at the lowest level since December 2008, another report from Eurostat showed, at 8.3% in June.Stocks in the US were called for a higher open as tech giant Apple headlines the corporate calendar, earnings due after the market closes. The Dow Jones were seen opening 0.1% higher, the S&P 500 up 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq up 0.1%.Among companies to report before Wall Street opens are pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble.The best performer in London's FTSE 100 at midday was British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines, up 2.2%, while easyJet gained 1.0% in a positive read-across from German peer Lufthansa.Lufthansa was up 6.3% in Frankfurt as adjusted earnings for the first half came in flat on last year's EUR1.01 billion, and the airline said it continues to expect adjusted Ebit for 2018 to be slightly below last year's record level.Fresnillo was up 1.6% as the gold miner said revenue for the six months to June came in at USD1.12 billion, compared to USD995.8 million a year earlier, helped by higher volumes and prices.Pretax profit rose to USD344.8 million from USD332.6 million though, when including the revaluation of the Silverstream contract, profit fell to USD323.0 million from USD387.4 million.Just Eat and Centrica were the worst performers on Tuesday, down 5.7% and 5.4% respectively.Online takeaway platform Just Eat said interim revenue rose 45% to GBP358.4 million from GBP246.6 million year-on-year though pretax profit declined 3% to GBP48.1 million from GBP49.5 million.The FTSE 100-listed company said that, confident in its current performance, it now expects full-year revenue of between GBP740 million and GBP770 million, up from previous expectations of between GBP660 million and GBP700 million.As well as raising revenue guidance on Tuesday, Just Eat upped its investment for long-term growth to between a range of GBP55 million to GBP60 million, from GBP50 million previously.The company left its underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation forecast unchanged, in a range of GBP165.0 million to GBP185.0 million."The key, as usual, lies with the outlook. Just Eat management was confident enough to raise FY revenue guidance, but left the profit outlook unchanged, suggesting lower margins for the year and leaving investors with a sour taste in the mouth," said Artjom Hatsaturjants, research analyst at Accendo Markets.British Gas parent Centrica slumped as despite a rise in revenue - up 7% to GBP15.3 billion for the six months to June 30 - adjusted operating profit was down year-on-year, by 4% to GBP782 million.In the Centrica Consumer business, adjusted operating profit fell 20% year-on-year to GBP430 million, with the fall hardest in the UK Home segment.Subprime lender Provident Financial gained 13% as the company reported a fall in half-year profit but reconfirmed its intention to restore its dividend and said its home credit business is expected to return to profitability in 2019.For the six months to June 30, Provident Financial posted pretax profit of GBP34.6 million, down sharply from GBP90.0 million a year before, on a revenue of GBP572.5 million and GBP619.4 million, respectively.The consumer credit division swung to a pretax loss of GBP23.2 million for the first half from GBP4.7 million pretax profit, due to disruption to its business model back in the second half of 2017.Provident Financial intends to declare a nominal final dividend for 2018, the FTSE 250-listed lender said.IMI was in second place in the FTSE 250, up 7.4% after the engineer said its annual results are set to be above expectations following a strong interim performance.IMI's revenue in the first half increased 8% to GBP914 million, as pretax profit grew 5% to GBP93 million."Based on current market conditions, we anticipate full year 2018 results will be slightly ahead of current market expectations," said IMI Chief Executive Mark Selway.Baker Greggs rose 7.0% following a "resilient performance" in the first half of the year despite challenging market conditions. The sausage roll seller said sales increased 5.2% to GBP476 million with pretax profit up to GBP24.1 million from GBP19.4 million.Builders' merchant Travis Perkins was the worst performer in the mid-cap index, tumbling 11% after lowering its annual guidance.The Wickes DIY store owner recorded a pretax loss of GBP123.4 million for the six months to June 30, compared with pretax profit of GBP167.6 million a year ago, on a revenue of GBP3.36 billion and GBP3.22 billion, respectively.Travis Perkins now expects 2018 earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation to be in the lower half of the range of analyst expectations.Elsewhere on the Main Market, Gocompare.com slumped 7.9% as the comparison website operator said interim pretax profit rose to GBP15.9 million from GBP14.7 million reported a year earlier, while revenue remained flat at GBP75.8 million."GoCompare's recent acquisitions mean it's got the raw materials for a product that's more than just 'good enough' and it's "Saving as a Service" strategy could make it invaluable to both businesses and customers. We suspect that that will be enough to kick start revenues in the medium term," said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.