28th Jul 2014 09:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Individual UK company updates are driving a mixed performance among London stocks Monday, with very little in the way of overall market drivers scheduled until later in the week.
By mid-morning Monday, the FTSE 100 is up 0.2% at 6,804.80, the FTSE 250 is down 0.2% at 15,662.80, and the AIM All-Share is fractionally lower at 772.89.
Within major European markets, the French CAC 40 is up 0.4%, and the German DAX is down 0.1%.
Aberdeen Asset Management leads the FTSE 100 fallers, down 3.2% after announcing an unexpected drop in its assets under management during its third quarter. The asset manager suffered a single withdrawal of about GBP4 billion from an unknown client, and well as slightly worse-than-expected outflows across various products. Early analysis suggests Aberdeen can expect to see its forecasts cut by about 3% as a results of the disappointing quarter, brokers say.
Royal Bank of Scotland is seeing a little profit taking in its shares following their meteoric rise on Friday when the bank surprised the market with an unscheduled release of unexpectedly strong results. Following the almost 11% rise on Friday, RBS is down 2.3% Monday.
Reckitt Benckiser is the best FTSE 100 performer, up 3.2% after reporting a first half profit of GBP1.04 billion, up from GBP898 million in the first half of last year. The results were driven by a better-than-expected performance from the group's pharmaceutical business, RBP, for which management has announced plans for a UK listing, expected over the coming year, as a conclusion to Reckitt's strategic review.
Debenhams leads the gainers in the FTSE 250, up 2.5% after announcing the appointment of a new chief financial officer. Mothercare's Matt Smith will join Debenhams after having served at Mothercare only since 2013. The announcement comes as Mothercare responded to the announcement by Destination Maternity on Friday that it is withdrawing its takeover offer, sending Mothercare shares down 6.4% Monday morning.
While there has been no economic data in the UK or European calendar Monday morning, there are some releases scheduled from the US in the afternoon. The US Markit services and composite PMI numbers are due at 1445 BST, with economists expecting a slight softening in the July service print to 59.8, from 61.0 in June.
Pending home sales data is then due at 1500 BST, followed by the Dallas Fed manufacturing business index at 1530 BST.
It has been the US second quarter earnings season that has been driving equity sentiment in recent sessions, and keeping markets in the US at all-time highs. However, the corporate calendar in the US is also a little lighter than of late Monday, with few big international names scheduled. Bigger names, including like Pfizer and Twitter, are scheduled to report on Tuesday.
Futures trading currently indicates that the DJIA and the S&P 500 both will open fractionally lower.
By Jon Darby; [email protected]; @jondarby100
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