LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: FTSE Struggles From Mining Weakness Ahead Of Fed

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks traded cautiously ahead of the US Federal Reserve's latest interest rate decision, with miners and B&Q owner Kingfisher keeping the FTSE 100 in the red. The FTSE 100 index was 5.36 points lower, or 0.1%, at 7,318.64 Wednesday at midday. The FTSE 250 was down 21.91 points, or 0.1%, at 19,529.38, though the AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 925.98.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 12,418.27. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,540.74, but the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.3% at 11,224.63."Global equities are either trading mixed or are lower as investors adopt a cautious approach ahead of the Fed's decision and further news on Sino-US trade talks, where negotiators are said to remain at 'odds'," said Dean Popplewell at Oanda. Ahead of the Fed's latest decision, Wall Street is on course for a broadly flat start, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all seen largely unchanged. "All eyes are on today's FOMC meeting where the Fed is expected to hold interest rates steady, announce plans for the end of asset roll-off from its balance sheet, and lower its 'dot-plot' projections for the number of interest-rate hikes this year," Popplewell said. "Market participants will also be scrutinizing whether dealer expectations of a rate cut in 2020 has any substance."The Fed announces its monetary policy decision at 1800 GMT, followed by a press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 1830 GMT.In the UK, focus lies on UK Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to seek a Brexit extension. EU leaders are scheduled to meet for a regular summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, at which May is expected to request an extension of the Brexit deadline so she can work out a deal establishing Britain's post-Brexit relations with the EU.However, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday he does not expect a decision on delaying Brexit to be reached at this week's EU summit. Speaking to radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, Juncker said talks on extending the time for Brexit negotiations will likely have to be pushed back to next week.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3222 Wednesday midday, lower than USD1.3281 at the London equities close on Tuesday.Meanwhile, official data showed UK consumer price inflation edged up in February, but still remains below the Bank of England's 2% target.CPI accelerated to an annual rate of 1.9% in February, versus 1.8% in January. January's reading had marked the first time CPI has fallen below the BoE's target since January 2017.Rising food, alcohol and tobacco prices helped to push up UK inflation, while the largest downwards pressure came from clothing and footwear.ING said this "benign" inflation is less important for the Bank of England - which announces its own latest interest rate decision on Thursday - than recent robust wage data prints. "At 3.4%, wage growth is hovering at a post-crisis high, driven by skill shortages in various parts of the economy. Given that this has been at the heart of the BoE's rate hike rationale in the past, it suggests a rate hike later in 2019 is still a possibility," said James Smith at ING."Admittedly, that relies heavily on the economy recovering through the second quarter from what we suspect was a pretty weak first quarter of growth," Smith continued. "It's equally possible that an Article 50 extension could lead to a prolonged pause from the BoE."In London at midday, minings shares were lower, including Rio Tinto, down 3.4%, BHP Group, down 1.7%, and Anglo American, down 1.4%. They fell after a local court ruled Brazilian miner Vale can resume activities at the Laranjeiras tailings dam and the Brucutu mine.The miner was forced to suspend operations at Brucutu and Laranjeiras in February following the collapse of a Vale dam in Brumadinho in late January, which was collecting waste from an iron ore mine in Minas Gerais state. Vale's troubles have led to iron supply concerns, in turn boosting global prices and lifting commodity-exposed stocks such as London-listed miners. Kingfisher was down 3.2% at midday after the B&Q and Screwfix chain owner posted a drop in annual profit and said it will be hunting for a new boss. Sales for the year to January 31 edged up just 0.3% at both reported and constant currencies to GBP11.69 billion, marking a 1.6% reduction on a like-for-like basis.Kingfisher's pretax profit fell to GBP322 million for the year, down from GBP682 million the year before. Even on an adjusted basis, pretax profit still fell 16% to GBP573 million from GBP683 million. This adjusted measure, however, did manage to beat consensus of GBP550 million."During the year, the UK, Poland and Brico Depot France performed well, leveraging the benefits of our transformation. However, Castorama France has been disappointing, and we are implementing a clear plan to sustainably improve its performance," said Kingfisher Chief Executive Veronique Laury.In a separate announcement, Kingfisher said it has decided to start the succession process for Laury, and she will leave at a date yet to be decided."Leading the transformation has been so exciting but also very challenging. As the transformation approaches its final year, I believe it is right for someone else to lead the next phase of the ONE Kingfisher journey," Laury said.Kier was dragging on the FTSE 250, offsetting a strong session for Inmarsat and some well-received results from TI Fluid Systems. Inmarsat climbed 17% to 514.40 pence, roughly USD6.81, after confirming late Tuesday it received a non-binding takeover offer from a consortium of firms in late January.The offer values the satellite operator at USD7.21 a share, or USD3.33 billion in total. The consortium - Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus International and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board - made the cash offer on January 31. Subsequently, the consortium added the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board to the members of potentially interested buyers under the deal.Inmarsat - which was responding to media reports of an offer - also confirmed the proposal was still under discussion with a further announcement to be delivered in due course.TI Fluid Systems was up 7.4% after the automotive fluid storage manufacturer said it had a "great year" despite a slight softening in global light vehicle production growth.The firm said revenue for 2018 dipped to EUR3.47 billion from EUR3.49 billion the year before, but pretax profit rose to EUR217.1 million from EUR158.0 million.Revenue growth at constant currency was 2.0%, or 3.1% ahead of global light vehicle production growth volumes.TI Fluid proposed a 5.94 euro cents final dividend per share, up from 1.31 cents the year prior. For the full year, the firm will pay 8.96 cents from 1.31 cents the year before. At the bottom of the mid-caps was Kier, slumping 7.8% after the construction firm slashed its interim payout amid a swing to loss. For the six months ended December, the outsourcer sank to a GBP35.5 million pretax loss from a GBP34.3 million profit the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 1.4% to GBP2.19 billion from GBP2.16 billion the year before. Profit was hurt by a sharp rise in one-off costs to GBP74.5 million from GBP15.1 million the year prior. The costs were primarily due to combined provisions of GBP51.0 million associated with its Broadmoor Hospital project and Environmental Waste contract.Underlying pretax profit - excluding exceptional costs - still fell 21% to GBP39.0 million from GBP49.4 million the year prior. On AIM, semiconductor wafer maker IQE slipped 9.2% after experiencing a "very difficult and challenging year".For 2018, IQE posted a pretax profit of GBP6.7 million, less than half the GBP15.1 million reported for 2017. This came despite revenue rising marginally, by 1.1%, to GBP156.3 million. Profit, IQE said, was hit by currency headwinds, production inefficiencies, a higher proportion of lower margin wireless revenue, investment in "low and zero" margin operations, and costs at its new Newport foundry. In mainland Europe on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.2% and 1.3% respectively at midday.Falls for Bayer and BMW were ensuring Germany's headline stock index underperformed global counterparts. Bayer was down 12% at midday after a US jury found that a weedkiller produced by a unit of the German agriculture and pharmaceuticals company contributed to a man's cancer.The trial related to the herbicide known as Roundup. It contains the chemical glyphosate and came into Bayer's possession after it purchased US agricultural chemicals maker Monsanto.A San Francisco jury came to the decision that Monsanto's Roundup had been a substantial factor in causing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Edwin Hardeman, a man who long worked with the substance.Meanwhile, BMW shares sank 4.6% after the car maker said it expects profit in 2019 to be well below that achieved for 2018. At EUR9.82 billion, pretax profit in 2018 was down 8.1% year-on-year. Group revenue was EUR97.48 billion, down 0.8% from EUR98.28 billion the year before.Deliveries of BMW's three premium automotive brands, BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, grew 1.1% to 2.49 million units from 2.46 million units in 2017.Looking ahead, the company expects its pretax profit to be well below the previous year's level.