Greater London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/17/2010 -- Financial spread betting guru Joshua Raymond, Market Strategist at http://www.cityindex.co.uk, looks at spread betting market activity around the FTSE and China on 13th December:
“Investors started the week on the front foot today with strong appetite for risk helping to lift European Indices over 0.5%.
Much of the high appetite for risk has been triggered by a solid month’s performance thus far and strong data yet again from China. Chinese inflation hit a new 28 month high last month whilst industrial output rebounded from a dip in October to rise 13.3% year on year. Capital spending rose 24.9% for the year so far in comparison to this stage last year. All data reaffirmed the impressive growth momentum that the world’s fastest growing economy maintains and boosts confidence for continued high demand for basic resources, lifting key mining stocks across Europe.
There remains a nervous hesitation from some investors over the potential fiscal squeeze the Chinese government may employ to help reign in spiralling inflation. However for now investors are betting that any fiscal tightening may not be a sudden and sharp process after China refrained for hiking interest rates over the weekend.
That said, Chinese state radio reported that the country was shifting from a loose policy stance to a prudent one and this paves the way for an interest rate hike in the near term. A sharp hike could unsettle those investors who have eagerly hunted mining shares over the last month.
Kazakhmys is one of the standout gainers on the FTSE 100 today, with its shares rallying 2.6% after Kazakhstan’s copper production rose 3.6% year on year. Kazakhmys, as the name suggests, is responsible for a large part of the countries mining production and so the data today boosts production expectations for the country.
We are now in the last week of the year that would historically see full trading as next week most traders set off for the Christmas holidays a bit early. Whilst we cannot discount the potential for profit taking at the latter stages of the week as traders secure the net p/l for the month or year, the momentum for Indices across Europe remains with a bullish bias.”
Keep up with market activity on the move with City Index’s spread betting iPhone app. Download it at http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/city-trading-pro/id404797585?mt=8#.
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