(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)LONDON CLOSE Footsie took a triple digit fall with resource stocks prominent among the hardest hit. The FTSE 100 fell 100 points to 6669 with less than one-sixth of the blue-chip index's constituents making any headway. Among those defying the trend was RSA Insurance (LON:RSA) on bid speculation. The stock rose 2.1% on market chatter that a mystery rival was interested in buying the group for as much as 600p a share. German insurer Allianz Switzerland's Zurich Insurance and Italy's Generali have all been rumoured previously as potential suitors for RSA. RSA led by former Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) chief executive Stephen Hester has been undergoing a shake-up aimed at saving £180mln over three years. Hester was brought in February last year to lead the recovery drive following accounting irregularities at its Irish arm and a run of bad weather claims in the UK and Canada. It launched a £773mln emergency rights issue to shore up its balance sheet and off-loaded non-core businesses in continental Europe North America and Asia. In May Hester said RSA had made encouraging first quarter progress with premium income returning to modest growth costs falling and its UK business gaining strength. A spokesperson for RSA declined to comment when contacted by Proactive Investors. Airlines also bucked the trend. Easyjet (LON:EZJ) reported better-than-expected revenue per seat in the three months to June 30 lifting its shares by 77p to 449.6p. British Airways owner IAG (LON:IAG) rose 9p in sympathy to 569.5p. Flybe (LON:FLYB) flew 11.25p higher to 82.25p as it reported a positive start to the year with passenger numbers rising 9.8% to 2.1 million in the first quarter. Airlines stocks would have been lifted by the latest data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) which showed crude inventories at the Cushing Oklahoma hub rose 2.3 million barrels last week contrasting with market expectations for a fall. The news hit shares in oil and mining stocks. BP (LON:BP.) shed 1.8% at 406.6p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) slipped 2.6% to 1800.5p. Commodities such as gold were sliding again as the greenback got stronger. Anglo American (LON:AAL) tumbled 48p to 813.5p Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) fell 94p to 2503p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) subsided 72p to 1180p. The biggest blue-chip casualty of the day was chip designer ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) hit by a double whammy of disappointing sales forecasts from Apple yesterday and its own underwhelming third quarter projections. ARM signalled that "a small sequential increase in industry revenues" in the second quarter could limit third quarter royalties. Among the small caps Weatherly (LON:WTI) was wanted on the back of a production update. The shares climbed almost 10% to 1.15p as it said it expects to reach full capacity at its Tschudi copper mine in Namibia in the final quarter of the year. Independent Resources (LON:IRG) hardened 6.3% to 0.85p as various directors and senior managers opted to convert salaries and fees due into shares. The market cheered the act especially as the shares were taken at a penny a pop which represents a premium to the current market price. US OPEN US markets have opened lower with the shadow of Apple continuing to hang over the market. Stockbroker Cowen was first off the mark to cut its price target for the iPhone maker which disappointed the market yesterday with its forecast of lower-than-expected revenues while iPhone sales fell short of hopes. Cowen cut its target from US$140 to US$130 or roughly the replacement cost of a typical five-dollar iPhone component on expectations that the boost Apple is receiving from China will taper off. Apple's obstinacy in sticking by smaller form factors for its smartphones hampered the company's sales for a long time in China where the nature of the alphabet means a big screen is a must-have. Since falling into line with other manufacturers Apple's sales have been soaring in the People's Republic but Cowen thinks the growth rate will not be sustainable. With the shares taking a hammering yesterday and down almost 5% in early trading today many other analysts opted to hold their targets and back Apple's track record of under-promising and over-delivering. Apple's weakness contributed to a four point fall to 2115 for the S&P 500 index and a 34 point fall for the Nasdaq Composite to 5175. The Dow Jones average was off 43 at 17877. Apple's suppliers such as Cirrus Logic and Skyworks Solutions were getting hit even harder than Apple in early trading. Another tech stock Internet portal Yahoo! was also on the slide after its trading update last night failed to excite. Revenues rose 15% from a year earlier to US$1.2bn but it posted a loss of US$22mln for the second quarter as traffic acquisition costs soared. Investors tucked into Chipotle Mexican Grill after its quarterly earnings while aircraft maker Boeing gained altitude on the back of its results. MID-SESSION WRAP London shares nose-dived on Wednesday as oil prices fell and results from US tech giants Apple and Microsoft disappointed investors. The FTSE 100 Index tumbled 109 points to 6660 in early afternoon trading on news of an unexpected rise in US crude oil stocks. American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed crude inventories at the Cushing Oklahoma hub rose 2.3 million barrels last week contrasting with market expectations for a fall. The news hit shares in oil and mining stocks. BP (LON:BP.) leaked 5.85p to 408.15p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) slipped 49.5p to 1786.5p. Commodities such as gold were sliding again as the greenback got stronger. Anglo American (LON:AAL) drifted 49.8p to 811.9p Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) fell 94p to 2503p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) subsided 62p to 1189.5p. Analyst Craig Erlam at OANDA said: "The wider commodity market is seeing plenty of downward pressure on the back of an ever-strengthening dollar.' The fall-out from quarterly results from Apple and Microsoft also dragged the market down. Apple shares tumbled after the technology giant forecast lower-than-expected revenues and iPhone sales fell short of hopes. Microsoft also disappointed reporting a US$3.2bn net loss in the three months to June 30 against a US$4.6bn profit last time after writing off US$8.4bn. ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) dipped 62p to 977p and Imagination Technologies (LON:IMG) was down 3p to 239.75p. ARM itself said its pre-tax profit in the half-year to June 30 rose 28% to £244.4mln on a 15% increase in revenue in US dollar terms. But it signalled that "a small sequential increase in industry revenues" in the second quarter could limit third quarter royalties. In economics traders were still waiting next developments in the Greek saga as parliamentarians in Athens prepared to vote on a second set of reforms. Greek premier Alexis Tsipras was looking likely to have to rely on opposition support to get the changes through amid defiance from rebels in his own party. Back in the UK minutes from the last meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee showed a number of committee members were edging towards voting for the first rate rise in more than eight years. No-one voted for a rise but some may have done so if the Greek crisis had not been weighing on sentiment. Governor Mark Carney has previously said a potential rate rise could come under serious scrutiny around the end of this year. In equities Easyjet (LON:EZJ) reported better-than-expected revenue per seat in the three months to June 30 lifting its shares by 64p to 1730p. Flybe (LON:FLYB) also flew 9p higher to 80p as it reported a positive start to the year with passenger numbers rising 9.8% to 2.1 million in the first quarter. Publican and brewer Marston's (LON:MARS) frothed up 4.7p to 159.8p on news of a 1.7% rise in like-for-like sales in its destination and premium pub business in the 41 weeks to July 18 against the same period a year ago. Telecoms group Talktalk (LON:TALK) dropped 31.7p to 358.8p after saying the overall broadband market had been softer than previous quarters. MOST FOLLOWED You try and tell the kids of today about the days of double figure interest rates and they look at you as if you are mad. Many of them cannot even recall the days of whole integer interest rates – though to be fair many of them are not inclined to try – but we could be returning to those days soonish judging by clues in the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The MPC voted unanimously to keep the benchmark lending rate at 0.5% where it has been for more than six years but a number of policy makers expressed unease about the possibility of inflation rising back above 2% and it was only the special circumstances caused by the situation in Greece that persuaded the antsy element among the MPC to stick to the status quo. Foreign exchange dealers were in little doubt what the minutes meant; sterling rose against the dollar and the euro – that holiday in Greece has just got even cheaper people! Buy-to-let operators are probably not panicking just yet and savers are certainly not rushing out to buy a bottle of fizzy pop to celebrate but journalists who have the phrase 'the MPC is expected to keep interest rates unchanged' stored on a macro might have to set up a new macro. An Apple story a day keeps the advertising manager at bay' has been a maxim for years now resulting in a level of media coverage that the Cupertino coverage could well afford to pay for but does not have to. For once however the media blitz is not on some trifling item such as the superiority of the cellophane used by Apple to shrink-wrap its products; today's coverage is about the iPhone maker's disappointing trading update released last night. The company saw US$66bn wiped off its stock market value – that's about two-thirds of the size of the latest EU bailout for Greece – even though its earnings beat analysts' expectations. The slump was attributed to less-than-stellar projections of future sales of the iPhone which remains the company's flagship product and primary cash cow. Sales of the iPad are tailing off while as expected no details were released about the sales performance of its recently launched watch. Apple a master at news manipulation has hinted that sales of the Apple Watch are going very well and we may see the shares bounce back when trading resumes stateside today. Coincidentally Apple's impact on the smartphone market was amply demonstrated by Microsoft's results which were also released last night. The Seattle-based firm announced its biggest ever quarterly loss (of US$3.2bn) as it took massive write-downs largely related to its purchase of Nokia's phone business which looked like a high-priced last roll of the dice to keep the Windows operating system relevant in the smartphone market. Apple's disappointing sales projections have cast a shadow on chip-designer ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) which has risen to prominence in the era of mobile devices. The Cambridge-based firm released its second quarter results this morning which showed a 32% increase in normalised profit before tax from the year before. Some of that gain can be attributed to increased royalties derived from sales of the iPhone so although ARM's numbers look good the share price moved down in line with Apple's. It is not a day when small caps are likely to gain much attention so let's finish with the spotlight on a tiddler and a story that is racking up the clicks on a well-known stock market news site. Dual listed 88 Energy (LON:88E ASX:88E) has raised A$12mln from a placing of shares. The proceeds are earmarked for the upcoming drill programme at Project Icewine on Alaska's North Slope and seeing as the placing was strongly oversubscribed it can be assumed that the project is one that has oil & gas investors excited. LONDON OPEN The fall-out from quarterly results from Apple and Microsoft dragged the London market down on Wednesday. Apple shares tumbled after the technology giant forecast lower-than-expected revenues and iPhone sales fell short of hopes. Microsoft also disappointed reporting a US$3.2bn net loss in the three months to June 30 against a US$4.6bn profit last time after writing off US$8.4bn. The FTSE 100 Index dropped 60 points to 6709. It was held back by the likes of ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) which fell 30p to 1009p and Imagination Technologies (LON:IMG) down 4.5p to 238.25p. ARM itself said its pre-tax profit in the half-year to June 30 rose 28% to £244.4mln on a 22% increase in revenue to £357.1mln but it signalled that "a small sequential increase in industry revenues" in the second quarter could limit third quarter royalties. In economics traders were still waiting next developments in the Greek saga as parliamentarians in Athens prepared to vote on a second set of reforms. Greek premier Alexis Tsipras was looking likely to have to rely on opposition support to get the changes through amid defiance from rebels in his own party. Back in the UK markets were set to comb through minutes from the last meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee for clues about when British interest rates may rise. Barclays economist Fabrice Montagne told Bloomberg TV he was not expecting any MPC members to have voted for a rate rise but governor Mark Carney had previously said he expected a focus on the future direction of rates around the end of this year. In equities EasyJe(LON:EZJ) reported better-than-expected revenue per seat in the three months to June 30 lifting its shares by 71p to 1737p. Flybe (LON:FLYB) also flew 4p higher to 75p as it reported a positive start to the year with passenger numbers rising 9.8% to 2.1 million in the first quarter. Publican and brewer Marston's (LON:MARS) frothed up 3.9p to 159p on news of a 1.7% rise in like-for-like sales in its destination and premium pub business in the 41 weeks to July 18 against the same period a year ago. MARKET PREVIEW London's blue chips are set for a weak start after heavy falls overnight in both the US and Asia. Financial spread bet firms sees FTSE 100 opening more than 20 points below last night's close of 6769 with more talk of an interest rise this time by Chancellor George Osborne likely to weigh early on. The Chancellor also flagged up more public sector spending cuts with a number of departments reportedly told to cut budgets by between 25-40% to save £20bn. US markets were knocked by a lukewarm reception to a group of earnings updates for the tech heavyweights led by sector leader Apple. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 181 points to 17919 though falls on the other two indices Nasdaq and S&P 500 were smaller. Apple shares tumbled after hours despite the iPhone maker posting its best quarterly profit ever and also topping revenue forecasts. Sales rose by a third to US$49.6bn while earnings per share climbed 45% to US$1.85. There was disappointment over product shipments even though IPhone sales rose by 45%and more particularly that no details on how the Apple Watch was doing. Tim Cook chief executive said it was widening the gap with its competitors which was certainly true for Microsoft which posted its biggest ever loss after a huge write-down on its phone make Nokia. There were also misses for IBM and Yahoo. Asian markets were on the back foot with losses across Tokyo Hong Kong and Shanghai. Apple will also be in focus in London today when chip supplier ARM Holdings reports its latest earnings. Easyjet Fresnillo and Sage also report.
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