London midday: Economists revisit rate forecasts after weak GDP data

LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) continued to move lower ahead of tomorrow's policy decision from the US Federal Reserve, despite another drop in Greek sovereign bond yields after Athens bowed to pressure to re-jig the team in charge of negotiating with its international creditors. That came after a very weak reading on first quarter economic growth in the UK which saw Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) put "under review" its forecast for a first increase in Bank Rate in the fourth quarter of 2015. The British economy grew just 0.3% quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, as the services sector "slowed down markedly".

As of 12:12 the Footsie was 80.18 points lower at 7,024.12. The yield on 10-year Greek government bonds was down by 90 points to 11.16%.

In parallel, investors were continuing to keep close tabs on the results of the latest election polls in the UK.

Nate Silver, the American statistician who forecast the result of the last two US presidential elections with great precision, believes the result of Britain's general elections will be "incredibly messy", the BBC reported.

In an interview with The Times, published on Tuesday, Cameron said only his party can save the UK ahead of the 7 May general election.

"Not winning the election outright is obviously not a success," he said. "I have a duty to spend the next 10 days to win the election outright ... Ten days to save the United Kingdom," he said.

Acting as a backdrop, just after the open bell The Wall Street Journal reported that the People's Bank of China (HKSE: 3988-OL.HK - news) was set to launch its own brand of quantitative easing.

In the next couple of months the Chinese central bank will allow the country's lenders to swap local-government bonds for loans as a way to bolster liquidity and boost lending, according to local officials cited by the newspaper.

However, later reports referenced officials at the People's Bank of China who said no such measures were needed.

StanChart (HKSE: 2888-OL.HK - news) , Astrazeneca (NYSE: AZN - news) prove a drag Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) revenues from Standard Chartered (Other OTC: SCBFF - news) fell 4% to $4.4bn, a 6% miss versus consensus forecasts of $4.7bn. Customer loans rose by 2% quarter-on-quarter after a 4% decline in the second half of 2014. "On one level, the market may be mildly relieved by today's numbers," said broker Investec (LSE: INVP.L - news) , "but we think that STAN's Q1 2015 IMS offers a preview of the unpalatable impact of planned deleveraging (now underway)." Astrazeneca was near the bottom of the pile after the results of a study showed US rival Merck (Other OTC: MKGAF - news) 's diabetes drug met heart-safety requirements. The British drug-maker's own treatment for that chronic disease was recently required by US authorities to carry information about the risk of heart failure.

Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) 's chairman was quoted saying the company has made preparations in case it receives a takeover offer.

BP has posted an underlying replacement cost profit decline of 20% on an annualised basis for the three months to end-March, though the figure was 15% higher on the previous quarter. In a trading statement on Tuesday, the oil giant said profit for the last quarter came in at $2.6bn compared with $3.2bn for the same period in 2014, and $2.2bn for the fourth quarter of 2014.

Costa Cofee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread (LSE: WTB.L - news) served up impressive results for the year to 26 February but announced that chief executive Andy Harrison will retire by the end of the current financial year. Revenue rose 13.7% to £2.61bn and underlying profits before tax by 18.5% to £488.1m, leading to a 19.4% increase in earnings to 213.67p per share, well ahead of the consensus forecast.

Fund management group Henderson saw record net inflows of £3.6bn in the first three months of the year, which contributed to a 10% rise in assets under management to reach £89.4bn. Chief executive Andrew Formica said: "Evolving client needs have driven us to develop a broad range of investment capabilities over the last few years which has enabled us to deliver market share gains in all of our major markets." After a bitter battle, Dundee-based Alliance Trust has reached a "compromise" with its activist major investor Elliott Advisers, allowing two of the US hedge fund's partners onto the board. Elliott, which had criticised the board for its under-performing investments and over-inflating their pay, has in exchange agreed to withdraw its three resolutions proposing new members to be added to the board of Alliance ahead of the companies annual general meeting this week.

Wealth management group St James's Place has posted a 22% increase in funds under management, according to its latest interim statement. Giving details on Tuesday, St James's Place said funds under management had risen to £55.8bn for the three months March end, up 22% from £45.8bn in 2014, and 7% since the beginning of the year.

Market Movers techMARK 3,234.12 -1.03% FTSE 100 7,046.35 -0.81% FTSE 250 17,699.71 -0.48% FTSE 100 - Risers Centrica (CNA) 273.80p +1.75% BP (BP.) 485.10p +1.72% Fresnillo (FRES) 735.00p +1.03% Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) (AAL) 1,112.50p +0.82% Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) (RMG) 443.50p +0.75% Glencore (GLEN) 314.00p +0.58% BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) (BLT) 1,578.00p +0.57% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 550.50p +0.55% Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) 'A' (RDSA) 2,084.50p +0.39% 3i Group (III) 513.00p +0.39% FTSE 100 - Fallers Shire Plc (Xetra: S7E.DE - news) (SHP) 5,385.00p -3.32% Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,082.50p -2.96% AstraZeneca (Swiss: AZN.SW - news) (AZN) 4,575.00p -2.77% St James's Place (STJ) 884.00p -2.48% Carnival (CCL) 3,083.00p -2.37% Whitbread (WTB) 5,320.00p -2.21% Babcock International Group (BAB (Other OTC: BABB - news) ) 1,002.00p -2.15% Aviva (AV.) 524.50p -2.05% Admiral Group (LSE: ADM.L - news) (ADM) 1,565.00p -1.82% Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 3,262.00p -1.78% FTSE 250 - Risers Lonmin (LMI) 150.30p +3.94% Centamin (DI (KSE: 003160.KS - news) ) (CEY) 62.70p +3.47% Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW.L - news) (TLW) 420.90p +2.58% Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 834.00p +2.08% Interserve (IRV) 584.00p +2.01% Acacia Mining (LSE: ACA.L - news) (ACA) 291.20p +1.64% Ophir Energy (Other OTC: OPGYF - news) (OPHR) 169.30p +1.62% Dunelm Group (LSE: DNLM.L - news) (DNLM) 903.50p +1.57% Card Factory (LSE: CARD.L - news) (CARD) 340.00p +1.34% Senior (SNR) 327.40p +1.27% FTSE 250 - Fallers Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,529.00p -3.66% Pace (PIC) 414.60p -3.31% Home Retail Group (HOME) 168.10p -2.83% Allied Minds (Other OTC: ALLWF - news) (ALM) 680.00p -2.58% Infinis Energy (LSE: INFI.L - news) (INFI) 185.20p -2.48% Ladbrokes (LAD) 102.50p -2.29% Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 144.00p -2.24% Victrex plc (LSE: VCT.L - news) (VCT) 1,989.00p -2.02% Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 1,903.00p -2.01% Synergy Health (LSE: SYR.L - news) (SYR) 2,301.00p -2.00%