London market gains ahead of US Fed Res interest rate decision

B&Q owner Kingfisher topped the blue-chip fallers’ board yesterday after posting a drop in half-year profits.

Shares i n the retailer were down by more than 2 per cent in a rather choppy session for the wider FTSE 100 Index ahead of this week’s decision on US interest rates.

The index was down by more than 60 points during the session but later turned higher, finishing 53.01 points up at 6137.60. Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 also rose.

Sentiment was given a boost by a positive session on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ahead by around 1 per cent at the time of the close in London.

Investors are weighing the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve lifting interest rates on Thursday for the first time since the financial crisis.

Markets were digesting a slew of US economic data, with separate sets of figures showing a contraction in manufacturing in New York but a second month of growth for US retail sales - though the expansion was lower than expected.

Signs of any poor economic performance can be seen as likely to hold back the possibility of rate hikes.

But in currency markets, traders were still betting that a hike by the Fed would happen before any i ncrease from the Bank of England as figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed UK inflation slipped back to zero in August.

Sterling was a cent lower against the US dollar at just below 1.54 while it was little changed against the euro at slightly above 1.36.

In equities, Kingfisher was in sharp focus as shares declined despite insisting its turnaround was on still on track and unveiling ambitious expansion plans for its Screwfix chain, which it aims to grow from 412 to around 600 sites.

The group posted a 2.3 per cent fall in underlying interim pre-tax profits to £384m as it took a £29m currency hit and saw tough trading in France offset good growth in the UK and Ireland. Shares slipped 9p to stand at 351.3p.

Supermarkets also had a tough session, after the latest inflation figures showed a record run of falling food and non-alcoholic beverage prices extending to 14 months, with a 2.4 per cent yearon-year drop in August.

Shore Capital analyst Darren Shirley said: “For the UK food retailers and supply chain such price reductions, even with favourable input and oil costs, represent quite a significant headwind for management and shareholders alike.” Tesco fell 1.4p to 177p while

Sainsbury’s dropped 1p to 228.6p and Morrisons was 0.4p lower to stand at 157.4p.

In the FTSE 250, online supermarket Ocado was ahead by 0.8p at 316.7p after it posted a betterthan-expected 15.3 per cent hike in gross retail sales to £252m in the 12 weeks to August 9 compared with a year ago. In other news, chip maker ARM

Holdings said it expects investments in the business to boost revenue i n 2016 by 40m US dollars (£26m), rising to 200m US dollars (£130m) in 2020.

Cambridge-headquartered ARM said it will continue investing in future technologies for smart mobile devices.

The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were Weir Group up 60p at 1298p, ARM Holdings up 321/ 2p at 9801/ 2p, SABMiller up 81p at 30141/ 2p and Coca-Cola HBC up 36p at 1378p.

The biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were Kingfisher down 9p at 351.3p, Vodafone down 2.8p at 218.4p, TUI down 14p at 1201p and Merlin Entertainments down 4.3p at 378p.