Mining shares continue to give support to market on China stimulus hopesLeading shares are heading towards another record high, but Merlin Entertainments is losing its magic.The operator of Madame Tussauds and Legoland, which joined the FTSE 100 earlier this month after Friends Life was taken over by Aviva, is down 1.6% or 7.6p to 446.3p. The falls follows a downgrade from overweight to neutral by JP Morgan Cazenove with a 450p price target.The FTSE-100 is certainly making a good start to the week’s final session with heavyweight mining stocks leading the charge once again. Iron Ore prices have pushed out to a one month high, but whether this alone actually warrants a rebound of this scale is certainly open for debate. As for the day ahead, US durable goods orders will be worth watching and any notable miss here could raise further questions over the Federal Reserve’s aspirations to hike interest rates any time soon, in turn giving global equities something to cheer. We’ve also got that EcoFin meeting taking place in Riga this afternoon so any signs of progress with regard to Greece may again be well received. Although the pace has slowed a touch (constrained by market volumes), selldown of the UK government’s residual stake has continued. Over the past month, a further 0.7bn shares (worth around £0.6bn) have been sold, leaving 15.0bn shares (20.95%) worth £11.8bn still to go. Under current Conservative Party proposals, a further £9bn is due to be sold over the next 12 months, including a £4bn public offer. As such, by end-2016, it appears reasonable to expect that the government may be out in full. Continue reading...
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