London midday: Markets rangebound with focus on central banks

Markets were rangebound on Thursday morning as traders awaited announcements from the Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank (ECB) on monetary policy.There were just 16 points separating the index's intraday low (6,416) and high (6,432), as markets paused for breath following a heavy sell-off the day before.Disruptions due to a technical glitch at Euronext had also unnerved investors slightly this morning, as markets were delayed by an hour early on with orders for equities, bonds and ETFs being affected.The BoE revealed at noon that it had left the Bank Rate and asset purchase programme unchanged this month, at 0.5% and £375bn, as expected. Given the trio of better-than-expected surveys on the manufacturing, construction and service sectors out over the last few days, markets were anticipating that the central bank would hold fire on injecting more stimulus at Sir Mervyn King's last policy meeting as Governor.The ECB is also expected to leave policy unchanged following the 25 basis-point rate cut to 0.5% last month, though traders will be watching the following press conference with bank President Mario Draghi more closely. Research Analyst Joshua Mahony from Alpari said: "Markets will be on the lookout for any continued loose rhetoric regarding future monetary policy such as the negative rate comment a month ago as a precursor to a potential sell-off in the euro."The FTSE 100 lost 2.1% of its value on Wednesday, falling to a level not seen since April 23rd, due to ongoing concerns that the Federal Reserve will soon begin to exit its quantitative easing programme owing to recent strength in economic data and hawkish comments from a number of Fed officials. Therefore, there is likely to be an element of caution on markets ahead of Friday's all-important US jobs report, which will hopefully give a clearer indication of how the economy has fared in the second quarter. Jobless claims figures are also due out later in the States this afternoon.FTSE 100: Johnson Matthey surges after full-year resultsPlatinum refiner and chemicals group Johnson Matthey impressed the market this morning with its full-year results. The company saw underlying pre-tax profit slip from £426m to £389m, but this came in ahead of the £379m forecast. Following what it described as challenging year, the firm said it remains well positioned to grow its business over the medium and long term.Financial sectors were firmly out of favour this morning as traders showed an element of caution ahead of some important economic announcements. Banking groups Barclays, RBS and Lloyds were heavy fallers with the former weighed down by reports that Nomura has sold 84.5m shares in the bank on behalf of Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. The stake is worth around £260m.Insurance giant RSA was one financial stock that bucked the trend after Morgan Stanley upgraded the shares to 'overweight', lifting its price target from 124p to 136p. Others including Aberdeen Asset Management however were in the red.Multinational oil and gas services company Wood Group was lower despite landing a contract with The Dow Chemical Company for construction of an ethylene unit in Texas.easyJet also underwhelmed this morning, with shares falling despite the budget airline reporting that it flew 3.4% more passengers and filled more seats on planes in May.FTSE 250: HomeServe gains on M&A speculationRumours of potential private-equity bids for the home emergency repairs group HomeServe pushed the stock firmly higher this morning.Defence and security group Ultra Electronics gained after saying that it has acquired specialist computing expert Varisys for up to £18m in cash.Investors also welcomed an announcement by materials and packaging group Filtrona which said that it is to change its name to Essentra later this month. The company said that after a year of planning, research and testing, this new identity best represents its new activities and products. FTSE 100 - RisersJohnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,764.00p +6.88%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 116.00p +2.47%Aggreko (AGK) 1,674.00p +2.45%BT Group (BT.A) 300.70p +2.24%Vodafone Group (VOD) 190.05p +1.36%Tesco (TSCO) 350.30p +1.36%National Grid (NG.) 750.00p +1.35%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 823.50p +1.23%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,128.00p +1.08%TUI Travel (TT.) 344.60p +1.03%FTSE 100 - FallersAberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 426.20p -2.58%easyJet (EZJ) 1,206.00p -2.27%Barclays (BARC) 309.30p -2.21%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 322.30p -1.86%Wolseley (WOS) 3,111.00p -1.55%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,477.50p -1.37%Old Mutual (OML) 195.20p -1.26%Antofagasta (ANTO) 931.00p -1.06%Melrose Industries (MRO) 253.80p -1.05%Kingfisher (KGF) 342.30p -1.01%FTSE 250 - RisersHomeserve (HSV) 272.70p +11.03%ICAP (IAP) 380.00p +5.03%Diploma (DPLM) 562.50p +3.21%Lonmin (LMI) 286.50p +2.32%RPC Group (RPC) 416.30p +2.11%PZ Cussons (PZC) 376.20p +2.09%United Drug (UDG) 329.90p +2.07%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 95.30p +2.03%Home Retail Group (HOME) 156.30p +1.89%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 291.30p +1.85%FTSE 250 - FallersThomas Cook Group (TCG) 119.70p -4.85%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 377.90p -2.85%KCOM Group (KCOM) 78.45p -1.69%BH Macro Ltd. USD Shares (BHMU) 21.36 -1.61%Henderson Group (HGG) 155.50p -1.58%Spirent Communications (SPT) 126.90p -1.48%Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 536.00p -1.47%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 122.90p -1.44%Computacenter (CCC) 464.90p -1.27%BH Global Ltd. GBP Shares (BHGG) 1,210.00p -1.22%