London midday: FTSE 100 flutters as investors weigh up positives and negatives

LONDON (ShareCast) - The UK's FTSE 100 held onto Tuesday's gains as it traded in a narrow range as market participants were being pushed and pulled by a number of conflicting matters that are currently permeating through the market. On the one hand, China's slowing manufacturing sector, as evident from overnight data, stokes worries about the health of the world's second largest economy, but on the other, fuels hopes that further stimulus measures will be injected by the country's central bank.

Similarly, Greece may be running out of money as EU and Greek officials' battle of funding terms but the European Central Bank's monthly stimulus programme mitigates contagion risk of a 'Grexit' while an improving Eurozone economy, as evident from Tuesday's PMI data, indicates the region is better position to deal with a potential Greek credit default.

Closer to home, it's the same situation, as evident in Tuesday's data which showed inflation fell to zero in February, indicating the UK is on the cusp of deflation.

That said, a "brief period of gently falling prices driven by lower energy prices is nothing to be feared. In the UK, at least, deflation will be a good thing for the economy", noted Capital Economics.

Low inflation also means the Bank of England will have to hold off from hiking rates in the near-term, supporting risk assets like equities even further.

Against this backdrop, the FTSE 100 in London put in a lacklustre performance, up 0.3% or 22 points to trade at 7047. Despite being near its all-time highs, the ambiguous and mixed picture in the market leaves the FTSE 100 struggling for further momentum to the upside.

Traders also closely watched events unfolding in France where a Lufthansa Germanwings Airbus A320 en route to Dusseldorf from Barcelona crashed. According to reports from AFP, flight 4U9525 lost contact when flying at an altitude of 6800 feet altitude.

In commodity markets, oil prices moved off overnight lows with Nymex crude futures up 0.8% and Brent crude futures higher by 0.4% while gold prices added 0.4% The British pound dipped against the US dollar by 0.3% after the inflation data to change hands at $1.49087 and the 10-year UK Gilt pared earlier gains to trade up just 10 basis points at 121.52.

Kingfisher (LSE: KGF.L - news) falls on derailed French bid while Wolseley (LSE: WOS.L - news) gets hit by impairment charge Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in UK-listed home improvement retailer Kingfisher fell 1.3% after its bid for French rival Mr Bricolage ran into trouble.

Shares in construction and building material company Wolseley dropped 3.7% after first-half profits plunged due to a hefty impairment charge, though the group did raise its dividend after strong growth in the US.

Real estate investment trust Land Securities (LSE: LAND.L - news) sold a 95% stake in London's Times Square building to private equity group Blackstone (NYSE: BX - news) for £268.4m. Land Securities stock added 0.7%.

Despite paying out a special dividend, shares in UK video game retailer Game Digital (LSE: GMD.L - news) sank 4.3% on the FTSE 250 index after its chief financial officer called it quits.

Market Movers techMARK 3,249.41 +0.14% FTSE 100 7,045.40 +0.11% FTSE 250 17,613.20 +0.35% FTSE 100 - Risers International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 605.00p +2.20% Old Mutual (Other OTC: ODMTY - news) (OML) 235.10p +1.69% Persimmon (PSN) 1,703.00p +1.67% Reed Elsevier (LSE: REL.L - news) (REL) 1,188.00p +1.54% Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) (ANTO) 737.00p +1.38% Sports Direct International (Other OTC: SDIPF - news) (SPD) 655.00p +1.31% Sage Group (LSE: SGE.L - news) (SGE) 484.40p +1.21% Dixons Carphone (DC.) 429.90p +1.20% St James's Place (STJ) 986.00p +1.18% GKN (GKN (LSE: GKN.L - news) ) 371.60p +1.17% FTSE 100 - Fallers Wolseley (EUREX: WLYH.EX - news) (WOS) 4,061.00p -3.54% Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF.L - news) (ABF) 2,931.00p -2.66% Centrica (CNA) 255.00p -1.47% Kingfisher (KGF) 367.80p -1.31% Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) (RMG) 444.10p -1.16% Standard Chartered (HKSE: 2888.HK - news) (STAN) 1,129.00p -1.05% Tesco (TSCO) 244.15p -0.99% Meggitt (MGGT) 558.50p -0.98% Glencore (GLEN) 304.65p -0.80% Carnival (CCL) 3,127.00p -0.76% FTSE 250 - Risers International Personal Finance (LSE: IPF.L - news) (IPF) 498.30p +6.36% Acacia Mining (Other OTC: ABGLF - news) (ACA) 279.20p +4.18% Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 147.50p +3.73% UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 486.70p +2.94% Unite Group (LSE: UTG.L - news) (UTG (Other OTC: UTGN - news) ) 595.50p +2.67% Renishaw (RSW) 2,586.00p +2.66% Betfair Group (LSE: BET.L - news) (BET) 2,231.00p +2.62% Cranswick (CWK) 1,424.00p +2.52% Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 177.30p +2.49% Just Eat (JE.) 366.40p +2.46% FTSE 250 - Fallers Soco International (LSE: SIA.L - news) (SIA (SES: E1:C6L.SI - news) ) 165.30p -5.16% Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 372.00p -4.62% Vedanta Resources (Other OTC: VDNRF - news) (VED) 554.50p -2.97% Kaz Minerals (LSE: KAZ.L - news) (KAZ) 225.50p -2.76% Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,704.00p -2.46% Lonmin (LMI) 131.50p -2.23% Infinis Energy (LSE: INFI.L - news) (INFI) 186.30p -2.15% Enterprise Inns (LSE: ETI.L - news) (ETI) 100.80p -2.14% AO World (Other OTC: AOWDF - news) (AO.) 181.20p -2.05% Cobham (COB) 312.00p -2.04% FTSE TechMARK - Risers BATM Advanced Communications Ltd (LSE: BVC.L - news) . (BVC) 13.50p +3.85% Gresham Computing (LSE: GHT.L - news) (GHT) 88.00p +3.83% Filtronic (FTC) 11.88p +3.26% Torotrak (TRK) 10.00p +2.56% Spirent Communications (Other OTC: SPMYY - news) (SPT (Taiwan OTC: 8431.TWO - news) ) 90.25p +1.98% Oxford Instruments (LSE: OXIG.L - news) (OXIG) 891.50p +1.54% Anite (AIE) 88.25p +1.44% Innovation Group (Other OTC: INVGF - news) (TIG) 29.25p +0.86% Ricardo (RCDO) 754.00p +0.53% KCOM Group (LSE: KCOM.L - news) (KCOM) 95.75p +0.52% FTSE TechMARK - Fallers NCC Group (LSE: NCC.L - news) (NCC (LSE: 0OFP.L - news) ) 201.75p -8.30% DRS Data & Research Services (LSE: DRS.L - news) (DRS (Other OTC: DRSX - news) ) 13.00p -3.70% RM (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) .) 140.25p -3.28% Skyepharma (SKP) 321.75p -0.69% Consort Medical (Other OTC: CSRMY - news) (CSRT) 861.50p -0.46% E2V Technologies (LSE: E2V.L - news) (E2V) 196.00p -0.38% Optos (OPTS) 344.50p -0.29% Dialight (DIA) 779.00p -0.19% IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 208.03 -0.02%