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London open: Stocks rebound as investors sift through corporate earnings
London stocks rebounded on Thursday, led by banking shares after Lloyds Banking Group reported its full year results.
Lloyds was the top riser on the FTSE 100 as it announced a £2bn dividend payout despite posting a fall in 2015 profit and having to cough up more cash to cover payment protection insurance mis-selling claims. Fellow banks Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC were also on the front foot.
RSA Insurance posted the second biggest rally as the firm reported a jump in full year profit as its restructuring paid off in 2015.
Going the other way, British American Tobacco slumped as it reported a decline in full year revenue as the volume of cigarettes fell.
Meanwhile, the fall in oil prices continued with Brent crude down 1.85 to $33.79 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate down 1.5% to $31.67 per barrel at 0900 GMT.
“Despite Brent Crude losing some of yesterday’s last minute growth, tumbling back below the $34 per barrel mark, the FTSE is seeing a relatively sustained surge from its commodity sector, Rio Tinto (dropping 2% thanks to a credit rating downgrade from Moody’s) and Premier Oil (falling nearly 8% after revealing its pre-tax losses had more than doubled to $829.6 million in 2015) the only notable outliers,” said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.
The main focus on Thursday will be revised fourth quarter UK economic growth data, due at 0930 GMT. Analysts expect gross domestic product rose 1.9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the previous estimate but lower than the third quarter’s 2.1% growth.
A final reading on Eurozone inflation for January will be released at 1000 GMT, with analysts pencilling in a revised 0.4% increase from a previous estimate of 0.2%.
Other economic data releases due include reports on US durable goods orders and US initial jobless claims at 1330 GMT, along with the US house price index at 1400 GMT. Federal Reserve policymakers Dennis Lockhart and John Williams are also set to speak at separate events at 1315 GMT and 1700 GMT, respectively.
The Brexit debate also is set to continue following heated exchanges between Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Wednesday warned that if the UK voted to leave the European Union in a referendum it would hurt economic growth in both regions.
