REPEAT: MARKET COMMENT: UK Stocks Set To Start New Quarter In The Red

Wed, 01st Apr 2015 06:41

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks are set to open lower Wednesday ahead of manufacturing data from the eurozone and the UK.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 will open 20.7 points lower at 6,752.3. The index closed down 1.7% at 6,773.04 on Tuesday as investors repositioned at the end of the quarter.

"Tuesday's sell-off in Europe has been largely put down to end of quarter profit taking by investors, following an incredible first quarter, so you could be forgiven for expecting stocks to continue their ascent today," says Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

"The fact that European futures are not only in the red, but heavily so, may suggest that investors are anticipating some turbulence ahead and have therefore opted to ignore the trend," Erlam adds.

On Wall Street Tuesday, the DJIA closed down 1.1%, the S&P 500 ended down 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite also ended down 0.9%.

In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei closed down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.6%, and the Shanghai Composite is up 1.2%.

Business sentiment in Japan was unchanged in the first quarter of 2015, the Bank of Japan revealed on Wednesday in its quarterly Tankan business survey. The large manufacturers' index came in with a score of 12, missing forecasts for 14, but unchanged from the third quarter. The outlook score is a little more ominous, suggesting that the index will fall to 10 in the second quarter - shy of forecasts for 16 after showing 9 in the previous three months.

Additionally, Japan's manufacturing sector decelerated in March but continued to expand, the latest survey from Markit Economics showed, with a PMI score of 50.3. That's down from 51.6 in February, although it remains barely above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The March reading also represents a 10-month low score.

China's manufacturing sector slipped into contraction in March, the latest report from HSBC showed, with a PMI score of 49.6. That was higher than the preliminary reading of 49.2, although it was down from 50.7 in February.

Nevertheless, the National Bureau of Statistics's manufacturing PMI index beat expectations to show an expansion in March. The index came in at 50.1, higher that the estimate of 49.7 and February's reading of 49.9. The non-manufacturing index slowed slightly from February, coming in at 53.7 in March, down from 53.9 in the previous month.

In the corporate calendar, there were full-year results from miner Evraz, half-year results from online fashion retailer ASOS and a trading update from transport company FirstGroup.

FirstGroup said its trading in the fourth quarter and the for the year is in line with its expectations, with good performances in its UK bus and rail operations.

Elsewhere, PZ Cussons said it has bought Glanbia out of their Nigerian joint venture for GBP21 million in cash, and has signed a long-term deal with the Irish ingredients company for the supply of milk-based products to the venture.

The British consumer products company PZ Cussons said the deal to take full control of Nigerian evaporated milk and milk powder venture Nutricima will boost its earnings in its next financial year. Nutricima made revenue of GBP74.4 million in the year to May 31, 2014, and a pretax profit of GBP1.3 million. Its gross assets were GBP57.9 million at that date.

Enginnering group Senior, meanwhile, has bought Lymington Precision Engineering Ltd for an initial GBP45.8 million in cash, a deal it expects to boost its earnings even though the newly acquired company is set to be hit by the steep drop in oil prices. Senior said it could pay up to GBP31.7 million more for Lymington depending on the acquired company's performance in the next 12 months.

In the economic calendar, there is Markit manufacturing PMI for France at 0850 BST, Germany at 0855 BST, the eurozone at 0900 BST, the UK at 0930 BST and the US at 1445 BST. ISM manufacturing PMI for the US is at 1500 BST.

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1