Leading shares rise despite continuing worries about Greek financial situationDespite continuing worries about Greece and disappointing Chinese data, leading shares have hit a new peak.The FTSE 100 is currently up 30.06 points at 7105.32, with European markets also moving higher ahead of the latest European Central Bank meeting, where president Mario Draghi will give an update on its QE bond buying programme. Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said:While we aren’t expecting any surprises just over one month in from the beginning of the ECB’s quantitative easing program, the questions are already being asked as to whether the program will last into 2016. At last month’s meeting in Cyprus [Draghi} was keen to talk up the success of his fledgling new easing program, despite the fact that most of the economic improvement being seen in the most recent data has been as a result of the lower oil price, and the decline of the euro, prior to the start of the program.We upgrade our recommendation on Next to overweight from neutral, with a December 2015 target price of 7,700p. Although we continue to favour Marks & Spencer on a 3-6 month view for its ongoing turnaround potential, we see scope for Next to recover some of its recent underperformance (13% year to date; 17% since Next’s 2015 results) between now and its interim management statement on 29 April. We think that the more favourable weather since Next last updated the market on 19 March, assisted by the favourable UK consumer background, should have led to stronger trading in the second half of the first quarter of 2016. Continue reading...
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