London open: Stocks surge after latest poll results

Stocks in London surged at the start of trading, alongside the largest gain the pound in three months, with investors taking their cue from strong gains in Asia as Brexit polls showed the Remain campaign was in the lead.

As of 08:43 BST the FTSE 100 was 145.82 points or 2.42% higher at 6,166.

Against the US dollar the pound was gaining 1.61% to 1.4593.

“We’re still getting some rather ludicrous predictions of what the pound might do in the event of a “leave” vote, which to some extent has caused some rather extreme positioning, and will likely contribute to a lot more choppiness in the coming days, as this morning’s Asia surge catches an awful lot of people the wrong way round,” Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK, said.

Over the weekend, a Survation poll in the Daily Mail revealed that support for the ‘Remain’ campaign was in the lead at 45.0% versus 42.0% for ‘Leave’, while two YouGov polls – one for ITV's Good Morning Britain and one for the Sunday Times – both showed Remain in front.

In addition, a ComRes poll for the Sunday Mirror revealed the percentage of people saying they’d be relieved if the UK stayed in the EU rose to 45% after the murder of MP Jox Cox, from 35% before.

Meanwhile, an opinion survey conducted for the Observer between Tuesday and Friday showed an even split but of the 10% undecided, 36% said they were leaning towards Remain.

According to Oddschecker's tally of the odds being offered by bookmakers, the chances of 'Remain' coming out on top were being put at 31%, down from a record 44.0% just before the killing of lawmaker Jo Cox.

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Forex, said: “The general mood among investors over in Europe is positive after an upbeat handover over from Asia. Investors are feeling a lot calmer after recent polls show that the Remain group has gained more popularity in the Brexit referendum campaign.

“This week the focus will be completely on Brexit.”

Circassia sinks after drug trial results

Shares in biopharmaceutical development company Circassia Pharmaceuticals plummeted on Monday morning, after it announced disappointing top-line results from its investigational cat allergy immunotherapy phase III study.

Hammerson said it has exchanged contracts and completed the sale of Thurrock Shopping Park, Essex, to TH Real Estate for £93m.

The sale price represents a net initial yield of 5.3% and is moderately below the book value as at 31 December 2015, Hammerson said.

Late-stage drug trials by GlaxoSmithKline on its treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have proved successful. The Phase III clinical testing by GSK and project partner Innoviva delivered data that is likely to support European regulatory submission by the end of 2016.

FTSE 250 precision instruments maker Spectris has completed the acquisition of the software and associated assets of privately-held software solutions company Capstone Technology Corp for $22.5m.

Capstone comprises two key software platforms: the MACS software suite providing engineering services and software for advanced process control optimisation and dataPARC, which is a data historian, visualisation and analytics software suite for operational decision support.

It will be integrated into Spectris' In-line Instrumentation segment.