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Weak European data drags FTSE off 5-1/2 year high

British blue chips traded a touch lower on Wednesday, in a day marked by weak economic data from the euro zone, mixed corporate results and a number of companies trading without their dividend entitlements.

 

Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.1 percent at 6,679.48 points, consolidating a 5-1/2 year closing high hit in the previous session.

Investor appetite in the globally-focussed FTSE was curbed by the threat to world growth from a slowing euro zone, with Germany's economy growing less than expected in the first quarter and France entering a shallow recession.

"The FTSE was looking at new highs today but it has been tempered slightly with Germany's and France's GDP being slightly disappointing," Andy McLevey, head of dealing at stockbroker Interactive Investor, said.

"But I can see us pushing on from here. We have seen clients who had been sitting on the sidelines starting to get involved."

He added the index could test its 2007 high at 6,759 points by the end of the month.

Technical charts also pointed to further gains, despite "overbought" signals flashing on the index's Relative Strength Index (RSI), a momentum indicator, according to Bill McNamara, technical analyst at Charles Stanley.

"The UK index is starting to look relatively overbought - the 14-day RSI, for example, has pushed up to a 15-week high of 74 percent," McNamara said in a note.

"But, in the current environment, that should be interpreted as a sign of strength rather than a reason to sell."

The FTSE has risen 7.6 percent in the past month as pledges of continued monetary stimulus from global central banks, and especially the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank, underpinned investor appetite for risk assets.

In this context, a disappointing earnings season, which has seen 54 percent of European companies miss consensus expectations according to Thomson Reuters StarMine estimates, has largely been shrugged off.

The earnings picture was mixed on Wednesday.

Low-cost airline Easyjet and exchange operator London Stock Exchange topped the FTSE after estimate-beating updates, rising 5.2 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

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But their gains were offset by falls in broadcaster ITV and engineer Wood Group, which warned about the earnings outlook.

The FTSE 100 was also weighed down by a number of companies, including supermarket chain Sainsbury and oil major Royal Dutch Shell , going ex-dividend and taking 9.59 points off the index according to Reuters calculations. (Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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