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(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were higher early Monday but the pound continued to struggle amid the ongoing battle between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his own Conservative party over a no-deal Brexit.
The FTSE 100 was 33.84 points higher, or 0.5%, at 7,242.84. The FTSE 250 was 43.29 points higher, or 0.2%, at 19,436.92, while the AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 872.41.
The Cboe UK 100 index was 0.8% higher at 12,281.20. The Cboe UK 250 was 0.3% higher, at 17,287.60, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was marginally lower at 10,850.24.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2148 early Monday, down from USD1.2178 late Friday. Sterling is down 1.0% over the past week.
"The pound continues struggling with ugly British politics as MPs return from the summer break to the most challenging Brexit fight within the Parliament," said London Capital Group Senior Market Analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
Ozkardeskaya continued: "British MPs will vote to prevent a no-deal Brexit on October 31 this week, and the Conservative Party has a slim majority of just one to carry on with a no-deal divorce. Labour Party will announce more details on its plans to block a no-deal exit on Tuesday and Boris Johnson is afraid of losing some Tories' support, which could have material consequences for his Leave strategy on October 31."
Pouring fuel on the fire, Johnson has put Tory rebels on notice that they face losing the whip and being barred from standing for the party if they vote against the government.
The UK prime minister decided to get tough with rebels as he faced a torrid week which will be dominated by Commons clashes over his EU withdrawal stance. With opponents of a no-deal Brexit set to try to seize control of the parliamentary agenda on Tuesday, senior Tories such as heavyweight grandees Philip Hammond and David Gauke were warned to back the government.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has insisted Labour is doing everything necessary to "bring Britain back from the brink" of Johnson's Brexit plans.
The Labour leader will use a speech in Salford on Monday to claim the prospect of quitting the EU without an agreement next month is adding to the "damage" done by Tory rule.
On the LSE, AstraZeneca was up 1.2% after reporting positive results from the Brilinta trial and Farxiga trials.
Brilinta reduced the risk for the composite of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke by 10% compared with aspirin alone, Astra said. The pharma giant said it will look to update Brilinta's label following the results.
Farxiga on top of standard of care reduced both the incidence of cardiovascular death and the worsening of heart failure, Astra noted in a separate announcement. The company had reported topline results from the Farxiga study in August, releasing detailed results on Monday.
Astra noted the Farxiga trial results also showed a "nominally significant" reduction in all-cause mortality by 17%.
Micro Focus International was 2.7% higher as Executive Chair Kevin Loosemore has been additionally appointed as non-executive chair of security products firm De La Rue.
De La Rue was 0.6% lower in morning trade.
Loosemore will become the chair designate of De La Rue on Monday before taking up the role on October 1. Loosemore will step down as chair of IRIS Software Group as a result of the De La Rue appointment, but remain in his role at Micro Focus.
Micro Focus also said Darren Roos will step down as non-executive director, effective immediately. Roos represented Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the Micro Focus board, but the period for HPE to appoint directors has expired, Micro Focus said.
Marks & Spencer was heading in the opposite direction, down 1.7%, after US investment bank Goldman Sachs resumed its coverage of the retailer with a Sell recommendation. M&S is threatened with relegation from the FTSE 100 index in this week's quarterly review
In the midcap index, Dechra Pharmaceuticals was 1.8% higher after it said it continued to "outperform almost all" markets in which it operates.
In the financial year ended June 30, Dechra recorded operating profit of GBP39.0 million, 14% higher than the year before. Revenue grew 18% year on year to GBP481.8 million.
Dechra upped its total dividend for the year by 24% to 31.6 pence from 25.5p.
"The group has delivered another strong performance throughout the financial year. We have continued to outperform in almost all markets in which we operate and strategically it has also been an excellent year," said Dechra Chief Exectuive Ian Page.
Amigo Holdings was 5.6% higher, continuing to claw back some of last Thursday's sharp declines. The loan provider added 10% on Friday but had lost 52% on Thursday, after having slashed its loan book growth forecasts.
Woodford Patient Capital Trust was 2.0% higher. It has hired Jane Tufnell as independent non-executive director as the Neil Woodford-led investment trust continues to deal with the fallout from its open-ended sister fund freezing redemptions in June.
At the beginning of June, Woodford took the decision to suspend withdrawals from his equity income fund due to "an increased level of redemptions", with the fund now needing time to "reposition" its portfolio invested in unquoted and less liquid stocks into more liquid investments.
Tufenll co-founded Ruffer Investment Management.
Susan Searle, chair of Woodford Patient, said Tufnell's fund management expertise and familiarity with investment trusts will bring "valuable experience" to Woodford Patient.
In mainland Europe early Friday, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were 0.6% and 0.8% higher, respectively.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 0.4% lower early Monday. In China, the Shanghai Composite added 1.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 0.7% lower.
In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended mixed before a long holiday weekend, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 0.2% and the S&P 500 up 0.1%. But the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.1% lower.
US markets are shut for the Labor Day holiday on Monday.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya said: "US equity futures sold off along with most Asian stock indices at the start of the week, as USD100 billion worth of Chinese goods were hit with 15% US tariffs as announced earlier this year. Additional USD160 billion worth of goods including cellphones and laptops will be subject to 15% tariff from December 15 onwards. China retaliated with higher tariffs on USD75 billion worth of US imports. Though the US-China face-to-face trade talks are still scheduled in September, the mood has only gotten worse with the imposition of new, mutual tariffs."
Meanwhile, a flurry of manufacturing purchasing managers' index readings are due. Scores from Ireland, Japan and China are already out. Still to come are Germany at 0855 BST, the eurozone at 0900 BST and the UK at 0930 BST.
The Irish manufacturing sector deteriorated for the third month in a row in August, continuing to drop at its fastest rate since April 2013.
Data from IHS Markit put the AIB Ireland manufacturing PMI at 48.6 in August, down from 48.7 in July.
The index has remained below 50, which reflects a contraction in the sector, since June, when it printed 49.8. Prior to June, the last time the PMI was below 50 was May 2013.
The decline was attributed to declines in output, overall new business and export sales, as continued Brexit uncertainty affected customer demand and resulted in weaker UK orders.
The Caxin China manufacturing PMI reading for August was 50.4, up from 49.9 in July and back in expansion territory.
