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UK stock market morning note (February 20, 2013)

The FTSE 100 is called to open lower this morning after its previous session high with investors looking ahead to the publication of a raft of UK and US economic data. The diary kicks off with the release of the latest domestic unemployment figures and the Bank of England Minutes. These will be followed at lunchtime across the Atlantic with building permits and producer prices data and at 7.00pm UK time the FOMC Meeting Minutes are due out. Commodity prices are slightly higher and on the foreign exchanges, the pound is mixed against the dollar and euro ahead of the above figures. Ofcom has announced the five winning bidders of the 4G mobile auction. These are Everything Everywhere, Hutchison 3G UK, Niche Spectrum a BT subsidiary, Telefonica and Vodafone who have paid a base price of GBP2.34bn.

Company Announcements

BHP Billiton CEO Change. It has announced that Marius Kloppers is to step down as CEO on 10 May 2013 to be succeeded by Andrew Mackenzie who joined the company in 2008 and is currently Chief Executive Non-Ferrous. It also separately announced Interim Results showing attributable profit excluding exceptionals down over 43% to USD5.68bn on revenue 14% lower at USD32.2bn. The dividend is raised 3.6% to 57 cents a share. It noted that its 20 relatively low risk, largely brownfield projects remained on schedule and budget at the end of December 2012 and its divestment programme had realised USD3.4bn. It added that the global economy is expected to strengthen over the next 12 months, providing support for commodities demand and pricing and the longer term outlook remains robust, although supply is now better placed to keep pace with demand for some commodities.