19th May 2015 10:15
1330: US housing starts rocketed by 20.2% month-on-month in to reach an annualised rate of 1.135m, according to the US Department of Commerce. That was the largest one-month gain for the series since 1991. 1329: JP Morgan has reportedly lifted its second half forecast for cable to 1.55 from 1.43 beforehand following the result of the UK election. 1245: A Moody's report on the impact of the strengthening Russian rouble has said it could give a boost to Carlsberg and Coca-Cola HBC. The credit agency said there could be a reduction in both companies' ratios of adjusted debt to EBITDA "by about 0.2 times" if the rouble remains at its current level for the rest of the year. Paolo Leschiutta at Moody's said: "Although this is a modest improvement and part of the benefits might be absorbed during the year, it removes some of the pressure on their ratings, which are weakly positioned within their current levels." 1225: The euro is slumping and European equity indices are being lifted by confident statements from two ECB governing council members. Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, said recent indicators suggested the ECB's quantitative easing measures had had a positive effect on inflation expectations and said the central bank was ready to "go further if necessary" to deliver on its mandate of maintaining inflation close to but below 2%. This followed a speech in London on Monday night by fellow ECB board member Benoit Coeure, who said the ECB would front-load its asset purchase scheme over May and June, and that short-term interest rates going below zero were not a problem for monetary policy. 1211: The FTSE 100 is back below the 7,000 mark after its early scramble above the key level. The index is up 26 points of 0.38% at 6,995.97 at 12:11. But shares in Vodafone are down as, although organic service revenue returned to growth in the final three months of the year, the telecoms giant's 7% decline in EBITDA disappointed analysts who had hoped for more of a boost from the first year of its Project Spring programme. Property developer Land Securities was a big riser after it has raised its dividend by 3.7% to 31.85p, and its net asset value was 5% better than consensus, noted Societe Generale. On the FTSE 250 leaderboard, self storage company Big Yellow, was near the top as results were boosted by higher occupancy and prices. DCC was another riser after its €464m bid for oil giant Shell's Butagaz liquefied petroleum gas business in France was predicted by analysts to significantly boost earnings. Icap was also higher despite a 21% full year decline in profit and a warning that it expected headwinds to continue. But management said they had "materially re-engineered" the business, with a significant reshaping of the global broking division. Going the other way was Aveva after profits sank 21% to £62.1m and its outlook was frowned upon by analysts at RBC Capital Markets. BTG was a major 250 faller as its annual profits declined as acquisitions and foreign exchange movements offset revenue growth. 1206: BOE Governor says he expects inflation to remain very low in the next coming months, but expects a bounce back at the end of 2015. In televised interview he said the public should "enjoy the low inflation while it lasts" over the coming months as the Bank of England will bring inflation up to the 2% target by the end of the year. "We expect inflation to be very low over the next few months. But over the course of the year as we get towards the end inflation should start to pick up towards our 2% target." 1201: US retail giant Wal-mart has published first quarter earnings per share of $1.03 (consensus: $1.05). 1156: Newswires are re-running reports that Airbus say that there may be a possible defect in their A400M engines. 1035: According to data released by Eurostat on Tuesday, consumer prices in the Eurozone stopped falling in April following four months of declines. The annual rate of inflation for the Eurozone printed at 0.0% in April, up from a fall of 0.1% in March and confirming the statistics office's earlier estimate. 1000: German economic confidence declined more than forecast in May, ZEW's survey revealed on Tuesday. The economic sentiment index dropped to 41.9 in May from 53.3 a month earlier, compared to analysts' estimates of 48. 0930: UK inflation fell 0.1% in the year to April, the first annual fall in the consumer prices index since the 1960s. Data from the Office for National Statistics said UK core inflation slowed to 0.8% in April, the lowest since 2001, and worse than the market had feared. However, the month-on-month figure, showing the rise between March and April, saw CPI rise by 0.2%. The market had expected an increase of 0.4%. 0900: The FTSE 100 opened higher boosted by bullish comments from European Central Bank official, Benoit Coeure. Couere said the ECB would front-load its asset purchase scheme over May and June due to lower normal market liquidity in July and August. Aveva, DCC and Big Yellow Group were topping the FTSE in early morning trade.Related Shares:
Coca-Cola HBC