London midday: Stocks push into positive territory, led by Compass

(Sharecast News) - After an earlier stint in the red, UK stocks swung into positive territory by the midday mark, as weakness in the mining sector was offset by gains from Compass, Beazley and Sage. The FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 8,215, having earlier dropped 0.6% to an intraday low of 8,152.44.

US stock futures were pointing to a mixed start on Wall Street as investors awaited corporate earnings from a bunch of blue chip names and household brands, including Coca-Cola, UPS, Alphabet, Tesla, Visa and Texas Instruments.

The economic data calendar was looking relatively quiet across the UK and Europe, while existing home sales and the Richmond Fed manufacturing index was the only major releases due out in the US in afternoon trade.

Meanwhile, market participants were starting to looking ahead to some key US inflation data due out later in the week, with the personal consumption expenditures index for June scheduled for Friday. Inflation as measured by the PCE index - the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of price pressures - is tipped to have eased to an annual rate of 2.4% from 2.6% in May, with the core rate slowing to 2.5% from 2.6%.

"The upcoming inflation data could have a significant impact on interest rate expectations, with the US Fed widely anticipated to lower rates by a quarter point in September," said analyst Patrick Munnelly from Tickmill.

Compass, Beazley and Sage jump, miners falls

Compass Group was a high riser, gaining 5% after boosting its full-year guidance following a bumper third quarter, in which the world's largest catering company saw organic revenues rise 10.3%. It now expects to grow underlying profit and organic revenues above previous projections of 15% and 10%, respectively.

Insurance group Beazley also rose after reassuring investors that the ongoing IT outage linked to cyber firm CrowdStrike should not affect its profitability. "Based on what is known at this point, the event will not change the current undiscounted combined ratio guidance of low-80s for the full year," the company said.

Financial accountancy software group Sage was putting in decent gains on the back of readacross from German peer SAP, which surged 7% in Frankfurt following its second-quarter results, which showed impressive growth for its cloud-based and AI software solutions.

Heading lower were mining stocks, as an interest-rate cut in China failed to excite commodities markets the previous session. Glencore, Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were all nursing losses.

"Copper futures have fallen by nearly 7% over the past five days amid concerns about sluggish demand from China as it struggles with a slowdown in economic growth," said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell. "The market has taken the view that China isn't digging deep enough with stimulus measures to fire up the economy and therefore commodities demand is at risk."

Anglo American was also lower after saying that its South Africa-based iron ore mining subsidiary delivered a "solid" performance for the first half of the year, though macro and logistics environment were said to be "challenging".

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 8,215.00 0.20% FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,109.58 -0.14% techMARK (TASX) 4,797.58 0.35%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Compass Group (CPG) 2,299.00p 4.93% Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,723.00p 3.16% Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 15,885.00p 2.32% Beazley (BEZ) 662.00p 1.85% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 6,374.00p 1.69% Sage Group (SGE) 1,063.50p 1.33% Entain (ENT) 663.80p 1.19% SSE (SSE) 1,862.00p 1.11% Pearson (PSON) 1,037.50p 1.07% Centrica (CNA) 141.10p 1.00%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Airtel Africa (AAF) 115.50p -1.28% Anglo American (AAL) 2,206.00p -1.25% Glencore (GLEN) 437.85p -1.24% Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,902.00p -0.86% M&G (MNG) 205.10p -0.77% Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 534.00p -0.74% Prudential (PRU) 695.80p -0.74% Standard Chartered (STAN) 725.40p -0.68% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,922.00p -0.67% LondonMetric Property (LMP) 200.20p -0.60%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Me Group International (MEGP) 190.00p 3.04% Playtech (PTEC) 553.00p 2.03% Indivior (INDV) 808.00p 2.02% Ashmore Group (ASHM) 169.80p 1.86% Hammerson (HMSO) 30.44p 1.47% SThree (STEM) 424.00p 1.44% Moonpig Group (MOON) 209.50p 1.21% Hill and Smith (HILS) 2,200.00p 1.15% Future (FUTR) 1,062.00p 1.05% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 153.50p 0.99%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

NB Private Equity Partners Ltd. (NBPE) 1,674.00p -2.79% SSP Group (SSPG) 176.10p -2.49% W.A.G Payment Solutions (WPS) 63.40p -2.46% Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 148.80p -2.36% VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 480.00p -2.14% IP Group (IPO) 40.95p -1.92% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 2,910.00p -1.69% Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,996.00p -1.67% Renewi (RWI) 669.00p -1.62% Alpha Group International (ALPH) 2,460.00p -1.60%