By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Pound recovers after flirting with $1.45
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks finished higher Tuesday,
aided by gains for mining shares.
The FTSE 100 vacillated between minor gains and losses during
the session, but eventually closed up 0.2% at 7,075.26.
The key mining group found some relief after being driven lower
in the previous session in the wake of downgrades of the iron-ore
sector and weak data from China, a key buyer of metals.
Shares of BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) and Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) , , the
largest iron-ore producers, climbed 3.1% and 2.8%, respectively.
The companies were downgraded by Citigroup on Monday, and Standard
& Poor's put their credit ratings on watch for possible
downgrade
But decliners included Aberdeen Asset Management PLC and
Associated British Foods PLC .
Aberdeen shares dropped 2.5% after RBC Capital Markets cut the
company to underperform from sector perform, lowered its price
target by 4% to GBP4.55 and reduced per-share earnings forecasts.
RBC said the moves come as they "expect an acceleration in equity
net outflows," in the three months to March. They estimated those
outflows have more than doubled to GBP1.9 billion from GBP900
million. Aberdeen's fiscal 2015 results are due May 5.
Associated British Foods fell 0.4% as Jefferies said it's
cutting its mid-term estimates on the company by 5% to 8% to
reflect "further currency headwinds" since its late January
downgrades. It also cut ABF's price target to GBP28.50 from
GBP29.
Oil heavyweight BP PLC's (BP) rating at Citigroup was cut to
neutral from buy, but shares finished fractionally lower, coming
off their worst levels of the day.
The pound (GBPUSD) had hit an intraday low of $1.4603 after the
Office for National Statistics said consumer prices in the U.K.
were flat in March
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-consumer-prices-stay-flat-in-march-2015-04-14-4485508)
from the year-earlier period. The inflation rate came in unchanged
at nil from February.
"Although this was widely expected, other measures of inflation
were mostly weaker than anticipated, causing the pound to slide as
speculators pushed their Bank of England rate hike expectations
further out," wrote Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at
Forex.com, in a note. The core CPI was just 1%, the lowest level
since July 2006.
But he noted the pound came off session lows ahead of the U.S.
retail sales report for March. The pound then bounced up to $1.4776
after that report showed a smaller-than-anticipated rise in sales
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/retail-sales-rebound-after-three-weak-months-2015-04-14).
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires