LONDON (ShareCast) - Footsie ended the week on a dull note, with most of the losses coming at the death.

Evraz suspends Czech steel production

Russian steel-maker Evraz led the market lower as it said it had suspended steel production in the Czech Republic because of low demand.

Credit Suisse stuck the boot into the stock, downgrading it to "under-perform" on the grounds that the pick-up in demand from China is likely to take longer than expected.

Credit Suisse also issued a short term trading sell on miner Antofagasta, on which they are broadly neutral, with a target price of 1,250p.

The Swiss bank sees three short term drivers of under-performance. Firstly, consensus production estimates look too high by up to 10% over the period 2013-16. Secondly, the shares have outperformed peers and the copper price and valuation is at the top end of its ten year range. Third, copper price may under-perform other commodities in the near term (given the resilient performance year-to-date and improving mine supply in the second half of 2012).

Banks and insurers were buoyed by Deutsche Bank upgrading the sectors to "overweight". However, it was financial services provider Hargreaves Lansdown which topped the leader board in the morning session, after it said it had got off to a "pleasing" start to its new financial year.

Hargreaves Lansdown's revenue, assets under administration (AuA) and client numbers all hit record levels in the July-September quarter, traditionally the firm's quietest period.

Talking of insurers, Direct Line was lower after making an impressive market début on Thursday which saw the shares climb from the flotation price of 175p to 188p in conditional trading.

Building materials supplier Travis Perkins saw like-for-like sales fall back in the group's second quarter (to end-September), as the group struggled with the poor weather and the competing attraction of the Olympics. Margins are also under pressure, the firm said, prompting management to tighten up even more on cost management.

Industrial materials provider Morgan Crucible has delivered a profits warning as trading conditions have deteriorated across most geographies, particularly in Europe and China. Sector peers Bodycote and IMI fall in sympathy, as analysts look around to see where the next profits warning will come from; Cookson got its warning out of the way on Monday of this week.

Information technology services provider Computacenter is having to spend time and money getting service levels up to the required standard on some new German contracts, but things are going well in the home market.

Other markets

The price of Brent crude drifted lower, with the most actively traded futures contract down $1.17 cents to $114.54 a barrel.

Gilts are on the rise. The yield on the benchmark 10-year gilt is down to 1.72% from 1.78% overnight. Yields move inversely to prices.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 712.50p +3.56%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,429.00p +2.40%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 39.78p +1.35%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,776.00p +1.24%
Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 216.50p +0.70%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 380.00p +0.56%
Pennon Group (PNN) 721.50p +0.49%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 654.50p +0.46%
National Grid (NG.) 692.00p +0.44%
Prudential (PRU) 848.00p +0.41%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Evraz (EVR) 234.70p -5.21%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 716.50p -3.95%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,268.00p -3.50%
GKN (GKN) 209.90p -3.27%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,264.00p -2.50%
Melrose (MRO) 230.00p -2.50%
Meggitt (MGGT) 402.70p -2.38%
IMI (IMI) 903.50p -2.38%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 174.55p -2.13%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,052.00p -2.05%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Bumi (BUMI) 273.00p +5.41%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 204.90p +3.85%
Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 117.20p +3.72%
NMC Health (NMC) 190.00p +3.26%
Carpetright (CPR) 695.00p +2.96%
Dixons Retail (DXNS) 21.75p +2.79%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 749.50p +2.53%
Lonmin (LMI) 508.50p +2.44%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 220.00p +2.33%
COLT Group SA (COLT) 119.80p +2.31%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 226.80p -11.34%
Spectris (SXS) 1,548.00p -6.80%
Bodycote (BOY) 351.00p -6.20%
Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 152.70p -4.92%
Renishaw (RSW) 1,658.00p -4.66%
Senior (SNR) 187.10p -4.05%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 190.80p -3.64%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,095.00p -3.52%
Premier Oil (PMO) 362.00p -3.39%
Fenner (FENR) 357.80p -3.30%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 165.50p +5.25%
Kofax (KFX) 305.00p +4.45%
Skyepharma (SKP) 89.75p +3.31%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 931.00p +2.42%
Emblaze Ltd. (BLZ) 48.50p +2.37%
Innovation Group (TIG) 22.25p +2.30%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Antisoma (ASM) 1.55p -7.46%
Hiwave Technologies (HIW) 1.07p -6.52%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 2.50p -3.85%
RM (RM.) 81.25p -3.56%
Sepura (SEPU) 87.00p -2.52%
CML Microsystems (CML) 393.50p -1.62%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 16.25p -1.52%


JH

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