London midday: Economic data drives financials higher

- German Ifo beat expectations- UK retail sales rise strongly in March- Man Group rebounds, IMI higher after updatePositive economic data from the UK and Germany cemented gains on Friday morning ahead of what is expected to be a bright start for US stocks with futures on the up after a barrage of better-than-expected first-quarter earnings reports.The Ifo Business Climate survey for Germany rose from 109.7 to 109.8 in March compared with consensus forecasts of a fall to 109.5. The news sparked a rise in the euro against the dollar with the euro trading at $1.3199, up 0.47% on the day. Nevertheless, the Ifo admitted that the rise was less pronounced than in previous months showing that "the German economy is losing some of its momentum". "The euro is continuing to trade in a tight range against the dollar, between 1.30 and 1.32. Even a successful Spanish bond auction and disappointing unemployment and manufacturing data out of the US yesterday failed to cause a significant move in the markets yesterday as investors continue to avoid making a decision on where the single currency is headed next," said analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari. Meanwhile, March retail sales in the UK showed their biggest monthly increase since January 2011. Retail sales volumes rose 1.8%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with the ONS suggesting that the clement weather boosted sales of spring clothing, footwear and gardening products. March was the warmest Britain has experienced since 1957. The markets' focus today will mainly be on the upcoming weekend meetings for the IMF, World Bank and G20.FTSE 100: Financials provide a liftFinancials were performing strongly by lunchtime with hedge fund manager Man Group leading the way after its recent underperformance. Shares were up nearly 4% today but still down 12% on the week. Banking group Lloyds was also on the rise, helped by a buy recommendation from Investec. "Return on equity recovery will be painfully slow, but (whisper it quietly) the worst looks to be behind us now," the broker said. Engineering group IMI was up after saying that it has made a strong start to 2012 with growth in its Severe Service and Merchandising divisions offsetting a more subdued performance in its other units. International Airlines Group (IAG) was flying higher after officially completing the purchase of bmi airlines from Lufthansa. Chip-designer ARM Holdings was leading the fallers ahead of the release of its first-quarter results next week. Jefferies this morning raised its target price on the stock but maintained its underperform rating, saying "we think a lack of visibility on the long-term potential has stymied sentiment." FTSE 250: SuperGroup plummets after getting sums wrongTrendy clothing group Supergroup admitted this morning that there have been arithmetic errors in its forecast of the wholesale business's performance amounting to a shortfall of some £2.5m. In the addition to a timing issue over demand predictions, pre-tax profit for the year to end-April is now expected to be in the region of £43m, versus the current consensus forecast of £50.74m. Shares were down 38% by midday.Telecoms group Cable & Wireless Worldwide continued to fall after last night extending the time required for Vodafone to come up with a formal offer for the group. The group took a tumble yesterday after it was revealed that India's Tata Communications was out of the running. The original deadline ran out on March 29th and was then extended until April 19th. It has now been pushed back to Monday April 23rd.Heading the other way was bookmaker William Hill after a strong first quarter, driven by growth in online betting, with a gross win margin above the expected range. FTSE 100 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 96.80p +3.64%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 30.30p +3.45%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 522.50p +2.75%Aviva (AV.) 307.70p +2.70%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,701.00p +2.53%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,140.00p +2.24%Barclays (BARC) 216.70p +2.07%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,224.00p +2.00%Schroders (SDR) 1,473.00p +1.87%CRH (CRH) 1,234.00p +1.82%FTSE 100 - FallersARM Holdings (ARM) 592.00p -2.55%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,710.00p -2.40%ITV (ITV) 86.30p -2.04%WPP (WPP) 842.50p -1.52%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 831.50p -1.48%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,620.00p -1.09%BP (BP.) 435.75p -0.98%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,103.50p -0.90%Kingfisher (KGF) 303.40p -0.75%Serco Group (SRP) 559.50p -0.71%FTSE 250 - RisersHome Retail Group (HOME) 105.40p +5.82%Inmarsat (ISAT) 440.80p +4.53%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 143.50p +4.06%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 31.54p +3.41%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 746.00p +3.18%William Hill (WMH) 275.00p +3.07%International Personal Finance (IPF) 250.10p +2.92%Beazley (BEZ) 145.00p +2.47%Lonmin (LMI) 1,031.00p +2.18%Atkins (WS) (ATK) 776.50p +2.17%FTSE 250 - FallersSupergroup (SGP) 352.50p -38.10%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 32.00p -5.88%Devro (DVO) 304.10p -2.84%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 137.80p -2.68%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 322.30p -2.21%Essar Energy (ESSR) 137.40p -2.14%Fenner (FENR) 446.80p -2.12%Exillon Energy (EXI) 138.30p -1.98%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 498.00p -1.87%ITE Group (ITE) 223.40p -1.80%BC