Market overview: Sainsbury moves above 200-day average

LONDON (ShareCast) - 1630:Close Stocks gained despite the release early on of a raft of weak economic indicators in China and a modestly weaker than forecast reading on industrial production Stateside. Sports Direct and Sainsbury led the advance on the top flight index, with market commentary highlighting the improved technical picture for the shares of the latter. To take note of, after the close of trading Standard&Poor's downgraded its rating on Greece's long-term sovereign debt. That came as oil futures on both side of the Atlantic (Shanghai: 600558.SS - news) continued their recent bounce. FTSE 100 up 22 to 7,096.70. 1606: Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Sainsbury are now top of the leaderboard with market commentary highlighting a so-called "golden cross" technical pattern, with the stock having today moved above its 200-day moving average.

1434: UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) has today lowered its view on Vesuvius (LSE: VSVS.L - news) ' 2015 earnings per share by 10%, although the Swiss broker admits that action in fact brings its forecasts in line with consensus. Nevertheless, the analysts believe the equity story for the company remains strong despite those short-term headwinds. "We continue to expect margin enhancement in 2016-17E and see 2017E margins rising to 12% versus 9.9% in 2014A (still well below a past pro-forma peak of circa 16%)," the broker says.

1357: Worries about bond scarcity are a "little exaggerated" and the ECB has approximately €110bn in exposure to Greece, Draghi is saying.

1349: Following a brief interruption as a protester was cleared from the room, ECB president Mario Draghi is now defending the effectiveness of the monetary measures adopted by the monetary authority.

1330: The New York Fed's Empire State manufacturing sector index decreased to -1.19 from a reading of 6.9 in the month before (consensus: 7.17).

1303: To take note of, in a preview ahead of Burberrys latest figures analysts at Berenberg highlighted how the luxury sector has re-rated from about 17 times earnings to trade at 22 times profits in March 2014, significantly above its medium and long-term averages. "We therefore see room for a significant de-rating should companies deliver numbers below expectations, and highlight that the sector's P/E contracted by more than 20% from peak to trough in 2010 and 2012," the broker adds.

1245: The European Central Bank has decided to keep policy unchanged, as expected by analysts, maintaining interest rates at 0.05%, the deposit facility rate at -0.25% and the marginal lending facility at 0.30%.

1114: The European Union's regulators have formally charged Google (Xetra: A0B7FY - news) with violations of competition laws through the abuse of its dominant position in the online search market. The regulators voted to issue the charge on Wednesday morning, the first time that any regulator has filed formal antitrust charges Google, after several years' attempts to find an agreement with the California company.

1001: Clothing and retail is featuring strongly in company news, with JD Sports the highest riser in the FTSE 350 after its strong preliminary results. Fellow clothing retailer Next (Other OTC: NXGPF - news) is on the up thanks to an upgrade from JP Morgan (and news that CEO Lord Wolfson has told staff he will give up his bonus next year to help subsidise a 5% pay rise for his shop workers), while trench coat and scarf sales have lifted second-half revenues at Burberry in the face of some concerns about a Chinese spending slowdown.

0909: Chinese GDP data released on Wednesday revealed a slowdown to a 7.1% pace for the first three months of the year, down from the 7.3% clip recorded at the end of last year. That was roughly in line with the consensus forecast. However, a raft of figures published alongside that number came in well below economists' estimates, stoking hopes of further stimulus from the authorities in Beijing. Oil and mining stocks are doing best early on while stock in Bunzl (LSE: BNZL.L - news) has been knocked lower by a downgrade. Traders will now focus on the results of the ECB's policy meeting later today and the release of the minutes of the US Fed's last rate meeting, which are due to be published in the evening. FTSE 100 up 26.24 points to 7,101.60 points.