London open: Stocks push higher as miners gain ground

London stocks edged higher in early trade, with miners pacing the advance as investors sifted through earnings and looked ahead to a speech by Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

At 0825 BST, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4% to 7,017.17.

Meanwhile, oil prices recovered, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.3% to $50.66 a barrel and Brent crude 0.1% higher at $51.50.

CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said: “With questions being asked about whether he will serve out his full eight year term as Bank of England governor, Mark Carney will be the focus of attention today as he speaks to the House of Lords economic affairs committee, ahead of next week’s rate decision and quarterly inflation report, where he is likely to face questions about the recent Brexit vote and the central Banks reaction to it.”

Carney is due to speak at 1530 BST.

Miners put in a strong performance amid rising copper prices, with Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto all sharply higher.

In individual company news, asset manager St James’s Place rallied after reporting a 21% rise in gross inflows for the latest three-month stretch to reach £2.8bn, with the political uncertainty after the referendum not having had any distinguishable impact on its day-to-day business.

Investment manager 3i Group nudged up after agreeing to sell its debt management business to Investcorp, a Bahrain-based manager of alternative investments, for around £222m to focus on growing its private equity and infrastructure portfolios.

Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland were just a touch firmer following a report that decisions on fines from the US Department of Justice for banks that also include Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse could be delayed until after the Presidential elections.

National Express gained after posting a rise in revenue and profit for the three month to the end of September.

Anglo American was on the front foot after it said production increased in the third quarter, with the exception of copper.

On the downside, aerospace and automotive engineering group GKN slid after it said management sales in the nine months to the end of September rose 21% to £6.9bn, including organic sales growth of 2% - or £151m - in line with expectations.

Whitbread was under the cosh despite sprinkling a 5% dividend hike on a strong set of interim results, with Premier Inn accelerating in the second quarter to offset a slight softening from Costa.

OneSavings and Shawbrook fell, while Aldermore rose after Credit Suisse adjusted its ratings on the challenger banks.

Segro pushed higher as Barclays lifted the stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’, but education publisher Pearson slipped back after Bank of America Merrill Lynch cut the stock to ‘underperform’.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,011.66 0.36%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,869.22 0.05%
techMARK (TASX) 3,437.90 0.13%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 1,101.50p 3.38%
St James's Place (STJ) 978.00p 3.06%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 538.50p 2.57%
Glencore (GLEN) 243.20p 2.36%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,731.50p 2.09%
Polymetal International (POLY) 897.50p 1.93%
Centrica (CNA) 217.40p 1.64%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,638.00p 1.55%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,241.50p 1.43%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,075.00p 1.29%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

GKN (GKN) 314.40p -2.72%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,751.00p -2.39%
Intu Properties (INTU) 287.20p -1.37%
Pearson (PSON) 756.00p -0.72%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,453.00p -0.68%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,302.00p -0.61%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 350.20p -0.40%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 458.80p -0.37%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,179.00p -0.37%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,388.00p -0.29%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 154.20p 4.40%
Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 754.50p 3.76%
SEGRO (SGRO) 453.80p 3.14%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 274.10p 3.08%
Rank Group (RNK) 194.70p 2.64%
National Express Group (NEX) 364.80p 2.62%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 292.50p 2.20%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 696.00p 2.13%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 291.20p 2.07%
Marshalls (MSLH) 279.90p 1.56%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 381.40p -4.29%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 271.10p -4.07%
Countrywide (CWD) 194.30p -3.81%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 235.60p -3.16%
Greencoat UK Wind (UKW) 113.50p -2.83%
Softcat (SCT) 329.70p -2.43%
Laird (LRD) 163.50p -2.39%
Allied Minds (ALM) 343.20p -2.36%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 485.90p -2.00%
Genus (GNS) 1,921.00p -1.79%