Reuters: Hot Stocks: Solid earnings lift Britain's FTSE ahead of BoE

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

Solid earnings lift Britain's FTSE ahead of BoE Aug 1st 2013, 09:58 Thu Aug 1, 2013 5:58am EDT * FTSE 100 up 0.4 percent * BoE seen on hold, but may issue statement * Lloyds jumps on margins, costs, dividend plans * Technical resistance at 6,660 may cap gains (Updates with latest stock market movement) By Toni Vorobyova LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 headed towards two-month highs on Thursday following robust corporate earnings from Lloyds and with investors looking to the Bank of England for possible future policy clues. The BoE is widely expected to keep policy unchanged at 1100 GMT but, as it moves towards more forward guidance under new governor Mark Carney, it could release a statement. Whether such comments come on Thursday or with next week's inflation report, they are likely to flag an equities-friendly mix of improving economic growth alongside plans to keep interest rates low for some time to come. There are signs that British companies are starting to reap the benefits of stimulus, with Lloyds beating profit forecasts thanks to higher margins and lower impairments on loans. Its shares topped the FTSE, jumping 7.5 percent. "Policy is most firmly directed, in my mind, to boosting the economic environment for domestic economic operations and the biggest beneficiaries of that are the banks," said Gerard Lane, strategist at Shore Capital. "If you are an investor who wants to take a very strong view you remain long of the domestic banks." Financials added 18 points to the FTSE 100, which was up 29.63 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,650.69 by 0942 GMT. Volumes in the index, however, were relatively light at 46 percent of the 90-day daily average, with some investors not wanting to take positions ahead of the announcements by the BoE and the European Central Bank. The ECB is also expected to hold policy, and is likely to emphasise that rates will stay low for a long time. Even the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is widely expected to be the first to start scaling back stimulus, offered some comfort to equity investors overnight, saying that the U.S. economy still needs support and giving no indication that it is considering reducing bond purchases in September, as some analysts had expected. While the FTSE 100 is grinding higher, Alpari analyst Craig Erlam reckoned gains could be tempered given it is approaching short-term resistance at 6,660. "Above here, the next target will be 6,790, although it should find resistance along the way around 6,670. Below here it should continue to find support around 6,600, followed by 6,556, 6,544 and 6,535," he said. (Additional reporting by Tricia Wright; Editing by Susan Fenton) 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