London’s top-flight index is set for a lower start after the head of the US central bank apparently spooked some traders the day before and following the release of data showing that expectations for the UK economy were at their lowest ebb since 2008.
As of 0742 GMT, FTSE 100 futures are trading 90.0 points lower at 7,513.50.
Speaking on Thursday on a panel at an event hosted by the IMF, Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, said that “there’s something in the idea of front loading”.
That served to send Wall Street duly lower and government bond yields higher again with the 10-year US Treasury note yield now nearly at the psychological 3.0% mark.
CMC Markets chief market analyst, Michael Hewson, saw little remarkable about Powell’s remarks given the hawkish tone adopted by many Fed speakers in recent weeks and perhaps even months.
However, he conceded that some observers may now be mulling the possibility that the Fed “might go harder for longer, that is another two 50 basis points hikes subsequently by the end of the summer.”
On home shores, consultancy GfK reported overnight that its UK consumer confidence index for April “crashed” by seven points to a reading of -38 (consensus: -31.0).
And according to the Office for National Statistics, UK retail sales fell at a month-on-month pace of 1.4% in March (consensus: -0.2%).
In terms of broker recommendations to take into account, analysts at RBC Capital cut their target price for shares of Anglo American from 4,400.0p to 3,400.0p and downgraded their view on the shares to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’.
Going the other way, those at Jefferies upgraded their recommendation for Berkeley Group Holdings from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ and raised their target price from 4,703.0p to 5,587.0p.
B&M chief steps down
B&M European Value Retail chief executive Simon Arora said on Friday that he planned to retire in 12 months after 17 years at the helm of the variety goods chain. Arora bought the group in December 2004 with his brother Bobby and expanded its estate to more than 1,100 stores from 21.
Real estate investment trust LXI REIT revealed on Friday that it had made a number of transactions, disposing of one property and acquiring another two. LXI REIT disposed of a property let to Premier Inn, B&M, Pure Gym, Pets at Home and Costa, for £19.33m, which represents a 19% internal rate of return per annum, and also agreed to purchase an M&S Simply Food store and a MKM trade unit, for a combined £9.44m and a foodstore in Largs, North Ayrshire, by means of a pre-let forward funding transaction.
Pantheon International updated the market on its performance on Friday, reporting an unaudited net asset value of 434.2p per share as at 31 March – up 16.6p, or 4%, from 28 February. The FTSE 250 private equity investor said that in March, valuation gains were 12.8p, investment income added 0.3p, foreign exchange movements were a positive 0.9p and share buybacks added 3.2p, while expenses and taxes took away 0.6p.
