London open: Stocks extend rally post ECB, but mining shares fall

UK stocks were extending gains on Friday morning despite weakness in the mining sector, as sentiment continued to be boosted by the announcement of a €1.1trn stimulus package in the Eurozone.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 6,832 early on after finishing the previous session at 6,796.60, its best finish since mid-September.

The European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled on Thursday that it would buy purchase €60bn-worth of private and public securities each month until September 2016 in a bid to revive growth and lift the euro area out of deflation.

“Yesterday’s programme was at the same time bigger, faster and more explicit than what had been promised before and what the market had come to expect,” said analysts at Deutsche Bank.

“With the ECB now committed to a large and sustained QE program we continue to believe that this will be a good environment for European equities and European credit whether you like the fundamentals or not or whether you think it makes any difference to the economy longer-term,” they said.

The focus of Friday’s session is likely to be on draft of manufacturing surveys across the Eurozone, UK retail sales figures and manufacturing and housing data in the States.

Mining stocks drop

Antofagasta, Glencore, Fresnillo, Vedanta Resources, Centamin, Randgold and Rio Tinto were trying with heavy losses as metal prices weakened.

Anglo American was also falling on rumours that it is looking at offloading the Dawson and Foxleigh coal mines in Australia, adding the assets to a list of projects that it is seeking to sell.

Telecoms groups Vodafone and BT were making gains as M&A speculation in the industry picked up following the announcement that the owner of the Three network, Hutchison Whampoa, is in talks to buy O2 from Telefonica for £10bn.

Building materials firm CRH was extending gains made on Thursday after confirming speculation that it could buy some of Lafarge and Holmium’s assets ahead of their proposed merger.

Ultra Electronics, the UK defence, security, energy and transport group, fell after confirming that its IT contract with Oman airport has been scrapped. The termination would likely lead to a provision against contract balances in Ultra’s 2014 results, it said.

The share price of oil and gas group EnQuest surged after it reassured its financial position “remains resilient” despite the recent collapse in crude prices, as it slashed its capital expenditure budget for this year. EnQuest’s lenders have agreed to raise the convenants on its credit facility, lifting the net debt-to-operating profit multiples, to provide “flexibility” for the company.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,091.39 +0.78%
FTSE 100 6,831.82 +0.52%
FTSE 250 16,473.44 +0.58%

FTSE 100 - Risers
CRH (CRH) 1,690.00p +3.11%
TUI AG Reg Shs (Post- 16/12/14)(DI) (TUIJ) 1,177.00p +2.53%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,166.00p +2.46%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 244.50p +2.43%
BT Group (BT.A) 430.70p +2.26%
Tesco (TSCO) 240.70p +2.06%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,159.00p +2.02%
Carnival (CCL) 3,145.00p +1.85%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,832.00p +1.69%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,787.00p +1.55%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 695.50p -3.27%
Glencore (GLEN) 257.45p -2.78%
Fresnillo (FRES) 893.50p -2.35%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 381.40p -1.78%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,465.00p -1.62%
BG Group (BG.) 896.80p -1.55%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,921.50p -1.52%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,517.00p -0.96%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 945.50p -0.77%
Capita (CPI) 1,102.00p -0.36%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Afren (AFR) 21.49p +7.45%
Premier Farnell (PFL) 171.20p +4.01%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 222.00p +2.97%
Henderson Group (HGG) 234.80p +2.80%
Workspace Group (WKP) 789.00p +2.47%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,081.00p +2.37%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 171.90p +2.32%
Saga (SAGA) 165.00p +2.17%
SSP Group (SSPG) 270.50p +2.08%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 482.90p +1.88%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 449.50p -4.28%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 70.35p -2.43%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,068.00p -2.38%
Lonmin (LMI) 175.40p -2.34%
Soco International (SIA) 272.10p -2.19%
Debenhams (DEB) 72.25p -1.70%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,369.00p -1.70%
Telecity Group (TCY) 845.00p -1.52%
Supergroup (SGP) 985.00p -1.50%
Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 658.00p -1.50%