Markets Overview:

UK 100 called to open +70 points at 7390; Asian equities rose with U.S. futures and China’s stocks stabilised ‪after Monday’s slide as investors gauge efforts to contain the coronavirus and awaited potential responses from policy makers. In a wild start to trading Tuesday, Chinese equities tumbled more than 2%, then recouped all that loss within minutes. The Nikkei closed at 23,084 (+112 points), whilst the Hang Seng also closed positivity at 26,667 (+310 points). It was a similar story in the U.S. yesterday where we saw evidence of positive investor sentiment renter the markets, the Dow Jones closed at 28,399 (+143 points), the S&P also gained ground, closing at 3,248 (+24 points) and the Nasdaq completed the green set, closing at 9,273 (+122 points). Oil continued to slip yesterday afternoon, but shown signs of bouncing this morning to trade at $55.44, following this sell off, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz discussed the global energy market and confirmed their readiness to continue cooperation within OPEC+.  Gold held steady at $1573.

In corporate news this morning:

BP announced Q4 results and have increased their dividend payout (by 2.4% to 10.5 cents per share) after a 26% drop in fourth-quarter profit on lower oil and gas prices which still beat forecasts. They reported $2.57 billion in underlying replacement cost profit (exceeding forecasts of $2.1 billion). 

Glencore reported a 9% fall in Q4 copper production as its Mutanda mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo suspended operations prematurely in November. Copper output fell to 355,400 tonnes and cobalt production dropped 13% to 11,900 tonnes. They kept its FY20 outlook unchanged. 

Micro Focus announce chairman Kevin Loosemore will step down after challenging year. Revenue for the year fell 7.3% to $3.35bn and its adjusted core earnings declined 2.6% to $1.36bn. 

NMC Health have noted the decline in their share price yesterday (-20%) and confirm that they know of no specific reason for the fall.   The company’s operations continue to perform strongly and the company expects to report FY19 results in-line with management expectations.  

Ryanair January traffic grows 5% to 10.8m guests.

Source: Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, DJ Newswires, AlphaTerminal

Reporting Today:

BP

Micro Focus

St. Modewen

Glencore

Reporting Tomorrow:

Smurfit Kappa

Barratt Developments

GlaxoSmithKline

Vodafone

Dominos

Redrow

In Focus Today:

US - Factory Orders

UK - Markit Construction PMI

This Week's Ex Dividends:

UK 100 :

Sage Group

:

Paypoint

GCP infrastructure Investments

Edinburgh Investment Trust

Daejan Holdings

Upgrades/Downgrades

Associated British Foods (ABF) Downgraded to Secot Perform by RBC Capital Markets (Bloomberg: 15 Buys/ 6 Holds/ 2 Sells)

Keyworks Studio Upgraded toBuy by Berenberg (Bloomberg: 6 Buys/ 1 Holds/ 2 Sells)

Morgan Sindall Downgraded to Hold by Liberum (Bloomberg: 4 Buys/ 1 Holds/ 0 Sells)

Royal Mail Group Downgraded to Sell by Berenberg (Bloomberg: 2 Buys/ 3 Holds/ 7 Sells)

Senior Downgraded to Underweight by Barclays (Bloomberg: 5 Buys/ 4 Holds/ 3 Sells)

For any help you may require placing trades or in terms of market information, put a call in to our trading floor – it’s all part of the service.