Reuters: Hot Stocks: Britain's FTSE drops to 1-month low, hurt by US data

Reuters: Hot Stocks Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Britain's FTSE drops to 1-month low, hurt by US data Apr 4th 2013, 15:56 Thu Apr 4, 2013 11:56am EDT * FTSE 100 down 1.2 pct * U.S.-focused companies among biggest fallers * Gains in miners could prove short-lived -Peel Hunt By Toni Vorobyova LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Britain's benchmark share index fell for a second session in a row on Thursday, hitting a one-month low on weak U.S. data and the absence of fresh stimulus measures from the European Central Bank. The ECB left policy on hold at its monthly meeting, disappointing minority bets for an interest rate cut, and its president Mario Draghi flagged downside risks to the expected economic recovery in the second half of the year. The gloomier prospects for the euro zone chimed in with a run of soft data from the United States this week, with Thursday's rise in weekly jobless claims building the case for a below-forecast print in Friday's key non-farm payrolls report. That dampened expectations of a recovery in corporate earnings in coming quarters and weighed on shares in British blue chips which earn around half their revenues in North America or continental Europe. The FTSE 100 closed down 76.16 points or 1.2 percent at 6,344.12 points, its lowest finish since March 4 and a further retreat from a 5-year peak of 6,533.99 points set last month. "We've seen a bit of profit taking, particularly some of the construction names and some of the airlines. It's just an excuse to sell a few names after the big move that we had up," said Martin Tormey, head of equity trading at Goodbody Stockbrokers. Companies which earn around half their revenue in North America were among the top fallers. Housebuilder Wolseley dropped 2.8 percent, while information provider Reed Elsevier lost 3.9 percent and cruise operator Carnival fell 3.0 percent. Such stocks have been popular in recent months, with exposure to the United States seen as a bonus as Britain's domestic economy hovers on the brink of its third recession in four years. That, though, has pushed up valuations, potentially making the shares vulnerable in case of a turnaround in the market or the U.S. economy. Wolseley, for example, traded on 14.9 times its expected next year earnings, in the top third of the FTSE and compared with a ratio of 10.8 times for the index as a whole, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed. On the upside, miners, among the worst performers so far this year, pushed higher. Antofagasta and Eurasian - among only four stocks in the FTSE 100 to hit 52-week lows this month - rose 4.7 and 1.7 percent, respectively. Peer Vedanta, meanwhile, added 6.1 percent, helped by a price target rise from Societe Generale and by continued bid speculation. "On a down day if people are looking for things that have lagged they (the miners) may see a bit more interest. Short term, a lot of them have been looking oversold," said Ian Williams, strategist at Peel Hunt. "A lot of other stuff may be looking technically overstretched, and they are not. But, certainly, on a fundamental view those stocks are quite vulnerable to the sort of things that people are concerned about (the global economy), so I would be surprised if it's a long-term trend." (Editing by Ruth Pitchford) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions