Reuters: Hot Stocks: FTSE keeps climbing, 2007 high in analysts' sights

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FTSE keeps climbing, 2007 high in analysts' sights Apr 25th 2013, 16:16 Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:16pm EDT * FTSE 100 up 0.2 percent * Miners up on metals prices pick-up, stimulus expectations * FTSE seen at 2007 high of 6,754 by end May - analysts * AstraZeneca, Unilever down on Q1 sales misses By Tricia Wright LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 rose on Thursday, building on a recent robust advance as stronger miners eclipsed downbeat corporate earnings news, with some technical analysts putting the index's 2007 high in the crosshairs. The FTSE 100 closed up 10.83 points, or 0.2 percent at 6,442.59, having lurched 2.4 percent higher in the previous two sessions when weak German data raised expectations of a European Central Bank rate cut. "It's looking good really... I think the consolidation (seen since mid-March) is ending," Valerie Gastaldy, technical analyst at Day By Day, said. "I expect next week we will be passing the 6,534 mark (the 2013 high)... The FTSE has strong overhead resistance at 6,754, the 2007 high, so I would say that's the target for the end of May." Miners whose steep slump earlier this year means investors are increasingly seeing value - were in demand, cheered by the prospect of further economic stimulus alongside a pick-up in copper and gold prices. Randgold Resources led the market higher with a 5.4 percent rise, followed by Antofagasta, up 4.6 percent, and Vedanta Resources, 4.1 percent ahead. Among FTSE 250 stocks, Kazakh miner Kazakhmys advanced 4.3 percent after its first-quarter copper output rose almost 12 percent year-on-year. The sector is trading at just 10.7 times its expected earnings for this year, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, significantly below the 12.1 times average for the FTSE 100. The UK benchmark was little changed by data showing Britain's economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year. But the muted reaction was unsurprising, traders said, given a large proportion of UK blue chips generate revenues overseas. LACKLUSTRE START Weak corporate results weighed on the market, with drugmaker AstraZeneca among the top fallers, down 1.9 percent, after its sales dropped by a bigger-than-expected 13 percent in the first quarter as patent expiries took a heavy toll. The earnings season has got off to a lacklustre start. Of the 22 percent of STOXX Europe 600 firms to have posted first-quarter results so far, about 47 percent have missed analysts' forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine. Consumer goods firm Unilever was the biggest laggard, suffering a 3 percent drop after its sales growth undershot market estimates. Some analysts, however, chose not to take a hard line on the stock, whose shares have jumped nearly 17 percent in 2013 against a 9.2 percent rise on the FTSE 100 over the period. "In all, and in the wake of a recent re-rating... little room for disappointment existed," Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in a note. "In a yield-starved highly uncertain economic environment, investors may continue to conclude that there are few alternatives... Favourable analyst opinion (is) unlikely to take a material turn for the worse." According to Thomson Reuters StarMine, the mean analyst recommendation for Unilever prior to Thursday's results was a strong "hold". (Reporting by Tricia Wright, additional reporting by Toni Vorobyova; editing by Ron Askew) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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