“Unilever’s 57pc exposure to emerging markets, while strategically desirable for long-term growth, renders the company vulnerable to organic sales growth disappointment in the second-quarter,” Mr Wickham argued. He cautioned that the shares may well see a correction if Unilever underwhelms with its latest numbers next Thursday.
But while Unilever shares were marked lower throughout the day, the wider FTSE 100 see-sawed. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee pushed the index lower in the morning, only for Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to drag the benchmark index back up again in the afternoon.
London’s blue-chips lost ground when the latest MPC minutes unexpectedly showed that none of the Bank’s policymakers voted in favour of extending quantitative easing (QE) at their latest meeting.
Attention then switched to the US, where Mr Bernanke began two days of testimony to Congress by saying that the Fed’s own bond-buying programme is not “on a preset course”.
Concerns in May that the US central bank would taper QE caused the FTSE 100 to tumble from a 13-year high, but today Mr Bernanke’s comments spurred a rally in the benchmark index, which closed 15.58 points better off at 6,571.93.
Precious metals producers were a focus on both the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 after Fresnillo and Hochschild Mining released well-received second-quarter updates.
Fresnillo was chased 26p higher to £10.42 after confirming it was on course to hit its production target of 41m ounces of silver this year. However, gold output is expected to slip to 465,000 ounces from an earlier forecast of 490,000 ounces because of a legal dispute at one of its mines.
The slight fall in gold production was not enough to put off analysts at heavyweight broker JPMorgan Cazenove, who said that Fresnillo remained their preferred stock for exposure to precious metals, and dismissed the company’s gold forecast downgrade as a “distraction”.
Putting in an even stronger performance in the mid-cap index was Hochschild, which leapt 10.1 to 146.2p. Traders were cheered by news that the miner had slashed directors’ pay and streamlined its board with the departure of two non-executives, in a bid to cut costs.
Elsewhere on the second-tier, oil and gas exploration group Salamander Energy, up 8.4 at 135.9p, finished in positive territory for the first time this week, after falling on Monday and Tuesday amid disappointment over a dry well in the Gulf of Thailand.
Goldman Sachs analysts helped Salamander today by repeating their “conviction buy” recommendation on the company, although they trimmed their price target to 363p from 397p. Nevertheless, the new target “continues to imply significant upside”, they said.
Staying with the explorers, Aim-listed Sound Oil jumped 9.2pc, a gain of 1 to 11.875p, after revealing it had found gas at its Nervesa appraisal well in Italy. Chief executive James Parsons said that the find “appears sufficiently large to deliver important cash flows and provide funding alternatives for the 2014 drill programme”.
Back with the day’s fallers, engineer Smiths Group, off 14p at £13.77 in the FTSE 100, was on the back foot after sounding a warning on full-year operating profit.
Imperial Tobacco, which was trading without the attraction of its latest dividend payment, was further hurt by Natixis’ downgrade to “neutral” from “buy”.
The maker of Davidoff cigarettes slipped 20.8p to £21.97, accounting for the shareholder payout.
Telecom Plus, another company that went ex-dividend, tumbled 70p to £13.02, despite disclosing that first-half profits are likely to be “modestly ahead” of last year.
Andrew Darley, an analyst at finnCap, moved his stock recommendation to “hold” from “buy” on valuation grounds, noting that Telecom Plus has a “premium rating”.
esure, the motor insurer, drew attention by falling 15½ to 312½p, after JPMorgan, one of its shop brokers, cut its forecasts for the company and figures from Confused.com and Towers Watson showed a 14.9pc slide in the average price of comprehensive car insurance during the second quarter, compared with a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Intertek, which provides product testing services, managed to rally from an early fall that was sparked by weak first-half numbers from Swiss peer SGS. The British company lost as much as 1.5pc before regaining ground to end the session up 16p at £30.51, a 0.5pc rise.
Lower down the scale, takeover excitement saw upmarket car dealer HR Owen climb 9½ to 130½p, a jump of 7.9pc. Berjaya Philippines, which already holds a 29.8pc stake in the company, offered to acquire the rest of the group for 130p a share, valuing HR Owen at about £32.5m.