London midday: Losses eased by positive UK data

- UK borrowing falls- CBI reports surprise jump in factor orders- Car manufacturing stats risetechMARK 2,638.77 +0.48%FTSE 100 6,678.70 -0.04%FTSE 250 15,172.14 -0.04%The FTSE pulled back from earlier losses by lunchtime today, as data showed UK borrowing fell in October and a survey from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed an unexpected climb in factory orders. The data offset last night's release of the minutes from the last US Federal Reserve meeting, which revealed members had continued to support the idea of winding down bond purchases in the 'coming months', as well as data from China which showed a slowdown in the country's manufacturing sector.The HSBC/Markit manufacturing sector purchasing managers' index dropped to 50.4 in November from 50.9 in October, giving rise to fears that economic growth was stalling.UK borrowing registers declineRevenue from stamp duty leapt nearly 50%, contributing to a decline in UK borrowing in October, data from the Office for National Statistics revealed this morning. Driven in part by an improvement in the housing market, public sector net borrowing fell from £10.3bn to £8.08bn month-on-month, and from £8.24bn the same period the previous year. The Confederation of British Industry reported a surprise jump in factory orders for November to their highest level since March 1995. The balance climbed to +11 compared to -4 in October, and versus expectations of 0. In other macro news, UK car production climbed by 17% year-on-year in October, with a total of 160,854 cars built during the four-week period, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).The increase, which marked the biggest monthly jump in the year-to-date, was driven largely by British demand, with manufacturing for the home market up 52.4%. Export growth was also strong at 11.4%.Fed minutes make investors wary The minutes of the Fed meeting showed that members of the committee believe the US economy has shown signs of improvement, but assured short-term interest rates would remain low for quite some time to come. Most significantly, comments from the meeting revealed members "generally expected that the data would prove consistent with the committee's outlook for ongoing improvement in labour market conditions and would thus warrant trimming the pace of purchases in coming months".Alpari UK Market Analyst, Craig Erlam, said: "Many members of the Fed now appear eager to start winding down its asset purchases and are looking for ways to do it that will create the least disruption in the financial markets, such as setting simple thresholds for reductions, or even more simply, providing a timetable for tapering that is not data dependent."Johnson Matthey cheers investorsShares in speciality chemicals company Johnson Matthey leapt to the top of the leaderboard after it reported a robust set of half-year results, powered by a strong performance in Emission Control Technologies ahead of new European legislation and good demand for Process Technologies' products.The group, which manufactures catalysts to control car emissions, said underlying pre-tax profit rose 13% to £212.9m for the six months ended September 30th on revenue that surged 31% to £6.4bn. The company does some work related to the pharamaceutical industry, which may help explain why both AstraZeneca and Shire have made strong gains. easyJet was another strong performer; earlier this week it posted an impressive set of full-year results. Meanwhile, the downside was being led by miners, including Antofagasta after a downgrade to 'neutral' by UBS, and tobacco companies, after US sector peer Philip Morris International warned the industry could suffer an overall 2-3% decline in 2014. FTSE 100 - RisersJohnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,179.00p +2.75%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,861.00p +2.51%easyJet (EZJ) 1,407.00p +2.18%William Hill (WMH) 367.30p +2.14%G4S (GFS) 265.10p +1.88%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,370.00p +1.86%Persimmon (PSN) 1,182.00p +1.63%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 103.70p +1.47%Legal & General Group (LGEN) 212.60p +1.24%WPP (WPP) 1,345.00p +1.20%FTSE 100 - FallersVedanta Resources (VED) 922.50p -3.00%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,363.00p -2.76%Fresnillo (FRES) 881.50p -2.54%British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,290.00p -2.08%Antofagasta (ANTO) 791.00p -1.98%Rexam (REX) 485.80p -1.90%CRH (CRH) 1,554.00p -1.65%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,806.00p -1.31%Melrose Industries (MRO) 293.60p -1.31%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 341.60p -1.27%FTSE 250 - RisersQinetiQ Group (QQ.) 212.10p +7.83%Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,902.00p +5.37%Bodycote (BOY) 624.00p +3.65%BTG (BTG) 460.00p +3.14%National Express Group (NEX) 256.20p +2.60%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 332.60p +2.18%Serco Group (SRP) 439.60p +2.07%Close Brothers Group (CBG) 1,270.00p +2.01%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,152.00p +1.95%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 331.40p +1.81%FTSE 250 - FallersEvraz (EVR) 108.50p -4.32%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 173.20p -4.31%Polymetal International (POLY) 520.50p -3.79%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 253.00p -3.44%Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 445.10p -3.37%Alent (ALNT) 320.00p -3.15%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 130.10p -3.13%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 126.10p -3.00%Devro (DVO) 299.40p -2.51%Workspace Group (WKP) 479.70p -2.08%FTSE TechMARK - RisersRM (RM.) 111.00p +2.78%DRS Data & Research Services (DRS) 23.75p +2.15%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 18.00p +1.41%Kofax (KFX) 373.00p +1.36%Anite (AIE) 88.00p +1.15%Sepura (SEPU) 130.00p +0.78%Vectura Group (VEC) 102.75p +0.74%Microgen (MCGN) 125.00p +0.40%Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 141.50p +0.35%FTSE TechMARK - FallersOxford Biomedica (OXB) 2.42p -6.92%Sarossa Capital (SRC) 1.30p -3.70%Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 141.00p -2.08%NCC Group (NCC) 175.50p -1.68%Innovation Group (TIG) 31.50p -1.56%XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,580.00p -1.25%Filtronic (FTC) 62.12p -0.80%E2V Technologies (E2V) 162.00p -0.61%Ricardo (RCDO) 596.50p -0.50%IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 178.96 -0.31%NR