Reuters: Hot Stocks: Banks lead FTSE lower, Aberdeen bucks trend

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Banks lead FTSE lower, Aberdeen bucks trend Sep 23rd 2013, 11:45 Mon Sep 23, 2013 7:45am EDT * FTSE 100 down 0.4 percent, banks lead market lower * Fed's Bullard talks of potential October stimulus withdrawal * Aberdeen Asset Management top riser after update * Croda boosted by Credit Suisse upgrade By Tricia Wright LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index slipped on Monday, led down by banks on a hint that the U.S. Federal Reserve could move to cut stimulus next month, while Aberdeen Asset Management bucked the trend after a robust update. The FTSE 100 was down 23.02 points, or 0.4 percent, at 6,573.41 by 1104 GMT. It extended a fall from Friday, when St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said it was possible the U.S. central bank would start cutting its $85 billion a month of bond purchase in October. Concerns about the timing of an expected scaling-back of the Fed's quantitative easing programme took their toll on the UK banking index, which was off 0.5 percent. "I am now less bullish on the market because the uncertainty of when we are going to get QE (withdrawal) is not going to really allow it to move on ... though I still think we're going to be higher towards the end of the year," said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital. Aberdeen Asset Management topped the blue-chip leader board, up 2.1 percent at 395.6 pence, after saying it expected profits to come in towards the top end of the range of analyst forecasts in the current year. While traders were slightly cautious on Aberdeen, given its exposure to emerging markets which are sensitive to the direction of monetary policy in the world's largest economy, they did see scope for further share price gains. "The May/June highs just short of five quid are probably slightly ambitious given the fact that we are going to see tapering at some time this year, you'd imagine, but that said the stock's still not hugely expensive to the sector," CMC Markets sales trader Matt Basi said. Aberdeen trades on a 12-month forward Smartestimate price earnings ratio of 11.7 times, compared with Schroders on 17.6 times, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine data. Some British shares reacted to broker comments, with chemicals maker Croda International rising 1.5 percent after Credit Suisse raised its stance on the stock to "outperform" from "neutral". National Grid fell 1.6 percent after UBS cut its recommendation for the stock to "neutral" from "buy". (Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Catherine Evans) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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