(Alliance News) -Â European stocks continued to drift on Tuesday as investors await US inflation data later in the week, with focus in the meantime lying on some weaker-than-expected data out of Germany.
As a result, Frankfurt's DAX 30 index lagged behind London's FTSE 100.
Meanwhile, the websites of the White House, the UK government and international media were hit by outages on Tuesday morning. Messages such as "Error 503 Service Unavailable" and "connection failure" appeared on the websites of CNN, the Financial Times, The Guardian and France's Le Monde newspaper. All were back up by midday in London.
The FTSE 100 index was up 18.28 points, or 0.3%, at 7,095.50 on Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down just 3.51 points at 22,904.55. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 1,258.51.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.2% at 707.01. The Cboe 250 was up 0.1% at 20,654.31 and the Cboe Small Companies flat at 15,199.46.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was flat while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.2%.
Europe has been "boosted by travel stocks, real estate and an unexpected upward revision to the eurozone's first-quarter GDP", said Sophie Griffiths, analyst at Oanda.
The euro area economy contracted 0.3% sequentially in the first quarter of 2021, revised up from a fall of 0.6% reported previously.
"However, an unexpected decline in German industrial production and mixed ZEW economic sentiment data is keeping the upside capped," Griffiths added.
Figures from Destatis showed German industrial production fell 1.0% month-on-month in April, confounding expectations, according to FXStreet, for growth of 0.7% after March's 2.2% increase.
Year-on-year, however, industrial production shot up 26% in April after growth of 4.8% in March. In mid-March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic began to cause disruption in Europe and resulted in stringent lockdowns.
Meanwhile, economic sentiment in Germany softened in June, ZEW said, but remains at an elevated level.
The economic sentiment indicator fell to 79.8 in June from 84.4 in May, missing market expectations, according to FXStreet, of an increase to 85.3. In contrast, the current situation index improved sharply to minus 9.1 from minus 40.1 the previous month.
"Although the ZEW indicator of economic sentiment has experienced a drop in June, it remains at a very high level. The decline in expectations is probably largely due to the considerably better assessment of the economic situation, which is now back at pre-crisis levels," said ZEW president Achim Wambach.
The euro remained soft in the data's wake. The single currency traded at USD1.2168 on Tuesday, down from USD1.2197 late Monday.
Sterling was quoted at USD1.4136, lower than USD1.4172 at the London equities close on Monday amid worries over the UK's lockdown easing path.
Over-25s in England are being offered a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine six months after the first jab was administered in the UK – as ministers continue to weigh up whether remaining lockdown restrictions will be lifted on June 21.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that those aged 25 to 29 in England – around three million people – will be invited to book their jabs from Tuesday as the NHS hailed reaching the "home straight" of the biggest vaccination programme in its history.
However, Hancock also told members of parliament on Monday that it was too early to say whether England's remaining coronavirus restrictions will be lifted on June 21, as case rates rose in more areas of the UK than at any point since early January.
Against the yen, the dollar rose to JPY109.48 from JPY109.23
Brent oil was trading at USD70.91 a barrel at midday, down from USD71.43 late Monday. Gold prices rose to USD1,894.54 an ounce, nudging up from USD1,893.07 on Monday.
Wall Street is on track for a mostly lower open, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 both called down but the Nasdaq 100 set for a flat start.
In London, the FTSE 100 got a boost from Intermediate Capital Group. ICG rose 6.6% after reporting a surge in annual profit, as its two units posted record performances, allowing it to up its shareholder payout by 10%.
At the end of March, the asset manager held USD56.15 billion in third party assets under management, up 19% from USD47.25 billion at the same point the year before. Fee earning assets grew 18% year on year to GBP46.73 billion from GBP39.57 billion.
Pretax profit multiplied to GBP507.7 million from GBP110.8 million, with its Fund Management Co's pretax profit up by 10% to GBP202.3 million, while the Investment Co swung to a pretax profit of GBP305.4 million from a GBP72.3 million loss the year before.
Aviva shares advanced 2.8% after activist Swedish investment firm Cevian Capital built just under a 5% stake in the insurer, pushing for a bumper shareholder payout and cost cuts.
Christer Gardell, managing partner and co-founder of Cevian, said: "Aviva has been poorly managed for many years, and its high-quality core businesses have been held back by high costs and a series of bad strategic decisions.
"Aviva now has the potential to become a focused and well-capitalised market leader that produces profitable growth, generates significant cash, and is highly appreciated in the equity markets."
Aviva has been on a run of sell-offs, a strategy put in place by Chief Executive Amanda Blanc last summer. In its 2021 first quarter results, issued in late May, Blanc highlighted the company is set to generate GBP7.5 billion in proceeds from the sale of eight non-core businesses.
Gardell added: "We expect the good divestments they've already announced to be completed. Following this, Aviva should be able to return GBP5 billion of excess capital in 2022. Costs are moving in the right direction and we expect the ambition level to be raised over time - we see potential for cost reductions of at least GBP500 million by 2023."
M&G fell 1.8% after Bank of America cut the savings and investment firm to Neutral from Buy.
In the FTSE 250, Paragon Banking jumped 10% on plans for a share buyback after interim profit hit a record on a booming UK housing market.
The lender made net interest income of GBP147.5 million in the six months ended March 31, up 4.3% year-on-year from GBP141.4 million. Pretax profit jumped 68% to GBP96.4 million from GBP57.1 million.
Paragon reinstated its interim dividend of 7.2p per share, half the level of its 14.4p-per-share final dividend for the 2020 financial year. It will also buy back GBP40.0 million of shares.
The first half saw "strong new business pipelines in buy-to-let and development finance," Paragon said. The company's buy-to-let portfolio increased 4.7% year-on-year to GBP10.9 billion. For the first time in four years, more landlords are planning to increase the size of their portfolio than cut it, according to independent research commissioned by the bank.
Oxford Instruments fell 3.3% despite posting substantial annual profit growth and bringing its dividend above pre-pandemic levels.
Pretax profit jumped 35% to GBP52.2 million in the financial year that ended March 31, helped by a foreign exchange gain of GBP7.3 million versus a loss of GBP1.4 million a year ago. The earnings jump was bolstered by solid growth in North America and Asia, offset by a modest decline in Europe.
The Abingdon-headquartered firm will pay a dividend for the year of 17.0 pence, after deciding not to pay anything for the previous financial year due to Covid-19 uncertainty. For the financial year that ended in 2019, it paid out a dividend of 14.4p.
Oxford Instruments said that, with its robust performance, strong order book and diversified end-markets position, it is well positioned for progress in the year ahead despite anticipated currency headwinds and ongoing coronavirus uncertainty.
By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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