Unilever, press and miners

Tuesday 19 January 2016

The headline index jumped in early trading with investors heartened by the fact that while China’s growth figure was the lowest rate for 25 years it was, reassuringly, in line with market expectations.

“The past 12 months have been a challenging time for consumer goods giant Unilever (LSE:ULVR) and the coming year is set to be even tougher,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Sales last year were ahead of market forecasts with underlying growth in emerging markets, which now account for more than half of its sales, rising to 7.1% from 5.7% in 2014. But the outlook for some of these markets, particularly those which depend on oil and commodity exports, is weak and as growth in developed markets is negligible, the group will have to continue to cut costs.

“Johnston Press (LSE:JPR) led small caps in early trading after it confirmed that underlying earnings would be in line with market forecasts. Total revenues for the 52 weeks to 2 January fell 7% year on year but underlying digital revenues were up 12%. Digital audience growth remains a priority and the number of unique users rose to 22.6 million in December.

“Heavyweight miners were buoyed by Chinese data with Anglo American (LSE:AAL), Glencore (LSE:GLEN), Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO), BHP Billiton (LSE:BLT) and Rio Tinto (LSE:RIO) locking out the top of the blue-chip index in early trading with rises ranging from more than 8% to over 4%.”

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