London open: Stocks edge higher, with miners in the spotlight
London stocks edged higher in early trade, taking their cue from a positive session in the US, with miners in focus following a series of production reports.
Ar 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% to 7,183.92.
Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor, said: “European equities are trading higher after the S&P closed at record highs and Asian stocks rallied, with commodity stocks yet again driving the markets forward. With Donald Trump confirming his pro-growth and pro-US policies, and with many corporate results remaining positive, general sentiment about corporate USA is improving and this is having a beneficial knock-on effect on global markets.
“Yesterday's Supreme Court announcement fires the starting gun for the next stage of Brexit. With Mrs May's government still committed to an end-March deadline for invoking Article 50, the UK market remains heavily polarised between those stocks that are likely to benefit from lower sterling and a divorce from Europe and those that are more exposed to the split. This is potentially exacerbating the effects of good and bad news, with any earnings misses - real or perceived - hurting share valuations hard, as we saw yesterday from easyJet's 10% fall.”
Miners were in focus on the corporate front.
Chilean copper giant Antofagasta rallied after reporting a strong fourth quarter performance, with copper production of 205,500 tonnes, up 13.8% versus the previous quarter, lifting production for the full year to just under 710,000 tonnes, 12.5% higher than the prior year.
BHP Billiton was also on the front foot after it posted its operational review for the half year to 31 December, with record production achieved at Western Australia Iron Ore, and total iron ore production of 118 Mt - a 4% rise year-on-year.
Fresnillo nudged a touch higher after achieving record production of gold and silver in 2016, even though the miner experienced some delays in implementing its turnaround plan.
Elsewhere, WH Smith surged after reporting a strong start to full-year 2017, particularly in the Travel business. In the 21 weeks to 21 January, total sales were up 2% and like-for-like sales were up 1%.
Vectura ticked up after saying a sales milestone receipt of $5m has been triggered following confirmation by Novartis that EU/Rest of World combined net sales of its Seebri Breezhaler and Ultibro Breezhaler for the year to the end of December have reached $512m.
Ashmore was a high riser as UBS upgraded the stock to ‘buy’, but Kingfisher dropped as Exane BNP Paribas downgraded the stock to ‘underperform’.
Restaurant Group tumbled as it said like-for-like sales continued to slip in the fourth quarter of 2016, and the company plans a "substantial" revamp of its casual dining chains as part of a group-wide "transformation programme".
On the macroeconomic calendar, the CBI industrial trends survey is at 1100 GMT.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,183.92 0.47%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,160.19 0.33%
techMARK (TASX) 3,246.36 0.08%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 879.00p 6.67%
CRH (CRH) 2,918.00p 2.17%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,595.00p 1.98%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 777.90p 1.95%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,508.00p 1.86%
Glencore (GLEN) 332.25p 1.64%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,504.00p 1.48%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,938.00p 1.41%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,663.50p 1.34%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,073.00p 1.23%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kingfisher (KGF) 329.70p -2.69%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 195.75p -1.81%
ITV (ITV) 206.40p -1.39%
Hammerson (HMSO) 541.00p -1.10%
Pearson (PSON) 605.50p -0.98%
Tesco (TSCO) 190.30p -0.96%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,790.00p -0.95%
BT Group (BT.A) 300.15p -0.94%
Capita (CPI) 500.50p -0.69%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,022.00p -0.64%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 315.00p 7.44%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,586.00p 7.16%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 499.10p 4.70%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 144.70p 3.06%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 452.60p 2.93%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 4,409.00p 2.82%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,035.00p 2.67%
Man Group (EMG) 129.10p 2.14%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,079.00p 1.89%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 328.10p 1.77%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Restaurant Group (RTN) 316.50p -8.55%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 154.00p -2.90%
Henderson Group (HGG) 224.10p -1.93%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 266.10p -1.92%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 226.20p -1.39%
Hunting (HTG) 581.50p -1.36%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 152.70p -1.36%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 417.80p -1.35%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 165.80p -0.96%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 338.80p -0.94%