Reuters: Hot Stocks: StanChart leads rebound in financials, buoys FTSE

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StanChart leads rebound in financials, buoys FTSE Mar 5th 2013, 09:49 Tue Mar 5, 2013 4:49am EST * FTSE 100 up 0.9 percent * StanChart leads financials post results * Serco top FTSE 100 riser on results, divi hike By Tricia Wright LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares recouped the previous session's losses on Tuesday, boosted by Standard Chartered after it unveiled full-year results. Standard Chartered rose almost 3 percent to 1,833 pence after it delivered pretax profit of $6.9 billion for 2012, up from $6.8 billion in 2011, though shy of the average analyst forecast of $7 billion. The bank said it had started the new year with strong momentum and was confident for the year ahead. "Excellent set of numbers ... We expect (investors) to be rewarded with the continual uptrend in the price back to a realistic valuation which is closer to 19 pounds," said Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers. The bank was the biggest contributor to the FTSE 100's gains, adding 4.1 points. It also helped lift other financials. Heavyweight HSBC, a significant faller on Monday after its full-year results missed analyst expectations, limped 0.2 percent higher to 711.4 pence as a number of investment banks weighed in on the stock with target price hikes. Charles Stanley technical analyst Bill McNamara highlighted that charts for HSBC reveal a clear uptrend has been in place since summer 2012 and currently implies possible support around 690 pence, just below the 50-day moving average. The FTSE 100 was up 57.30 points, or 0.9 percent, at 6,402.93 by 0917 GMT, just near a five-year peak of 6,412.44 struck on Feb. 20, with fresh assurances of accommodative monetary policy from the Federal Reserve aiding sentiment. "Central banks are protecting the downside for now but the question is for how long," said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital, which manages around $500 million assets. He did, however, say he was not keen on buying the dips, for now. Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve's influential vice chairwoman, helped buoy Wall Street on Monday when she said the U.S. central bank's aggressive monetary stimulus is warranted. In a busy day for corporate earnings, outsourcer Serco , which is threatened with demotion from the FTSE 100, jumped 11.3 percent after it relaxed its payout policy and ramped up its total dividend by 20 percent year-on-year as part of a forecast-beating full-year report. Glencore, just over a month away from completing its takeover of miner Xstrata, firmed 3.2 percent after posting its full-year number. The commodities trader posted a 25 percent drop in 2012 net income, smaller than most of its diversified mining peers which have recorded some of the sharpest falls in profit in a decade. Xstrata, reporting separately from Glencore for what should be the last time before the completion of the tie-up, rose 3.2 percent. "Overall the results are positive, with robust cash flow generation and strong Marketing performance against a weaker commodity backdrop grabbing the headlines at GLEN while better than expected coal earnings is a notable positive in XTA," Liberum Capital said in a note. With the earnings season in Europe almost two thirds of the way through, 61 percent of STOXX 600 companies to have reported so far have beaten or met forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters data. John Wood Group advanced 5.8 percent as the energy services firm posted a 35 percent jump in profits, while midcap industrial equipment hire group Ashtead advanced 7.7 percent after raising its full-year profit expectations. (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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