SDR voting, non-voting shares lead FTSE 100

Equities markets in Europe were mostly higher Wednesday as the corporate earnings season continued, with some results coming in better than expected.

The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 each added 0.41 percent on the session in London, to 4,547.53 and 7,762.59 respectively.

Voting and non-voting shares of investment manager Schroders (LSE: SDR.L, SDRt.L) led gainers on the 100, with non-voting shares adding 5.23 percent to lead the index while voting shares were up 4.62 percent.

Insurers were higher as Old Mutual (LSE: OML) was 3.89 percent higher and RSA Insurance Group (LSE: RSA), formerly Royal Sun & Alliance Insurance Group, gained 3.81 percent.

Beverage can manufacturer Rexam (LSE: REX) turned in the worst performance of the day on the 100 as it dropped 8.14 percent.

There were some big gains on the 250, led by Bluetooth chip maker CSR (LSE: CSR) with a gain of 17.83 percent and automobile retailer Inchcape (LSE: INCH), which added 17.78 percent, while the biggest loser on the index was food processor Northern Foods (LSE: NFDS) with a decline of 6.84 percent as it went ex-dividend.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.86 percent to 910.59 while the CAC-40 added 1.04 percent to 3,365.62 and the Dax gained 1.85 percent to 5,270.32 but the IBEX dropped 0.02 percent to 10,661.6.

There were only four decliners on the CAC-40, led by conglomerate Lagardere (Euronext: LG; NYSE: LR), which dropped 2.33 percent.

Chemicals groups were higher on positive quarterly reports as Bayer (FWB: BAY; TYO: 4863) led gainers on the Dax as it added 5.44 percent while Netherlands-headquartered Akzo Nobel (Euronext: AKZA) gained 9.8 percent.

Most carmakers were higher, with Peugeot (Euronext: UG) adding 10.92 percent to lead the CAC-40, while Renault (Euronext: RNO) was up 5.67 percent, Daimler (FWB: DAI; NYSE: DAI) was 4.55 percent higher after it said its operating loss in the second quarter was less than expected, and BMW (FWB: BMW) gained 3.32 percent, but Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) dropped 5.33 percent to lead decliners on the Dax.

Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region, on the other hand, saw declines on the session.

Tokyo’s markets bucked the trend as the Nikkei 225 added 0.26 percent to 10,113.24 while the Topix index was up 0.02 percent to 930.36 and the Mothers market gained 1.02 percent to 455.67.

Shares related to semiconductors were higher as Advantest (TYO: 6857) was up 3.3 percent and Tokyo Electron (TYO: 8035) added 2.2 percent.

The steel sector was mixed as Nippon Steel (TYO: 5401) dropped 3.5 percent after it said it had suffered a quarterly loss and said it will not pay a dividend for the first half, but JFE Holdings (TYO: 5411) added 4.2 percent after it announced that it expects a profit for the full year and on a broker upgrade from “sell” to “buy” from Goldman Sachs.

Elsewhere in the sector, the Kospi was down 0.11 percent to 1,524.32 while in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.6 percent to 4,148.9 and the S&P/ASX200 was 0.64 percent lower to 4,148.9.

The Straits Times Index dropped 0.76 percent to 2.604.06, the Taiex was down 0.83 percent to 7,083.63, the Sensex fell 1.03 percent to 15,173.46, the Hang Seng was 2.37 percent lower to 20,135.5 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 5 percent to 3,266.43.

New York markets were lower in early afternoon trade as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.35 percent to 9,065.05 at nearly 1 p.m. local time, while the S&P 500 was down 0.47 percent to 975 and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.46 percent lower to 1,966.5.

Story link: SDR voting, non-voting shares lead FTSE 100