Uneasy market wary of Chinese lending limit

Published on Sunday 18 June 2006 01:25

SCOTTISHPOWER was one of a handful of risers on Friday as the FTSE 100 ended down for the third straight week on concerns that moves to limit bank lending in China will hit growth.

The Glasgow utility closed 3.9% higher after Morgan Stanley issued an upbeat research note on the stock in the wake of a presentation from the company. It was a rare bright spot on a largely gloomy day.

The Chinese government's decision to raise banks' reserve requirements, which limits the amount banks can lend, spooked UK investors who feared it could lead to lower demand for commodities. Mining group Antofagasta, steelmaker Corus and precious metal refiner Johnson Matthey were losers.

The FTSE 100 closed 21.9 points, or 0.4%, lower on Friday at 5,597.4 points. In the past month the blue chip index has fallen as much as 11% from a five-year high of 6132.7 set in April.

It has been a gloomy few weeks for investors. Bid speculation surrounding some of Britain's biggest companies was not enough to help prevent the FTSE from ending down last week.

Among the rumours, GlaxoSmithKline was said to be lining up a bid for fellow UK pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca. Gossips said Glaxo is eyeing a deal if it fails in its 8bn bid for the consumer healthcare operations of Pfizer.

Perennial bid favourite Alliance & Leicester was in the headlines again, despite Credit Agricole launching a bid for Greek bank Emporiki, which traders said diminished the chances of it also trying to buy A&L. But just when it seemed that A&L could be out of favour, a rumour emerged linking Santander with a bid.

Looking ahead, resurgent supermarket group Sainsbury's faces a fresh test this week when it updates the market on first quarter trading. Chief executive Justin King recently managed to turn the first loss in the company's history into profits of 104m, with five successive quarters of sales growth. A consensus of analysts is predicting a 5.1% rise in like-for-like sales for Sainsbury's in the 12 weeks to June 17.

DSG International, the owner of electricals chain Curry's, is expected to report a fall in group profits to 309m from 326m a year earlier. It has been a busy year for DSG, which merged the high street operations of Dixon's and Curry's into a new business called Currys.digital in a bid to streamline the business. Although DSG's financial performance will have been boosted by sales of flat screen televisions, analysts remain cautious about a long-term recovery.

Glasgow telecoms group Thus is expected to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of around 39m against 37.8m last year on revenues up from 360m to between 364m and 376m.