No telling FTSE movement as investors wait on US job data release

The FTSE 100 is still holding onto a six-month value high on Friday as investors await US job data which is likely to play a telling part in the direction of the blue-chip index in the final session of the week. Investors are distancing themselves from stock that’s vulnerable to risk appetite with an air of negative sentiment surrounding the later release of non-farm payroll numbers from across the Atlantic.

Kate Neilson
shareprices.com - Friday, October 08, 2010

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Banks are in decline ahead of US job data

At 10:43GMT, the UK’s top index is 30 points down with a loss of 0.5 per cent of the index value to fall to 5,632.63.

Analysts have forecast no growth in the number of people employed outside of the agricultural sector in the US. However, a lot appears to be hinging on this release with the recent corporate information being fed from the US showing a mixed bag of results. And with equities experiencing an upward trend in previous sessions despite uncertainty over the global economy recovery, a poor showing from US employment figures could turn fortunes on their head.

With this in mind, banks are being avoided this morning. The sector has had a big part to play in the FTSE’s recent surge to six month highs, even in the face of Irish and Spanish debt fears. But banks are now most susceptible to a poor US job data report and investors are selling now in anticipation of less-than-encouraging figures.

Barclays (LON:BARC) has lost the biggest portion of its share price in the sector this morning, shedding 2.7 per cent of the value.

Part-nationalised duo, Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS), are both declining in the region of 0.8 per cent with HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) and Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) also trading down.

Also provoking a downturn are precious metal miners after experiencing a few weeks of record-high gold prices. However, with the stock becoming slightly overweight and gold prices weakening, Fresnillo (LON:FRES) is down 3.6 per cent and African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) has shed 1.2 per cent of its share value.

But the wider mining sector hasn’t been dampened as badly by precious metal falls and the upcoming US job data with the broader sector remaining relatively flat with a few gainers.

BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) is spearheading the gains with a 0.8 per cent share price improvement with Lonmin (LON:LMI) tracking gains as well.

The stock that is dominating headlines this morning is FTSE 250 travel firm Thomas Cook (LON:TCG). The share price in the holiday company is up 3.4 per cent after it unveiled a deal with the Co-op to merge their high-street travel businesses to become the largest travel firm in the UK.

 

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