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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in the UK have opened higher Tuesday, after the Easter break, but investors are likely to be on edge after an EgyptAir flight carrying 81 passengers was hijacked and landed in Cyprus.
On its official Twitter account Egyptair confirmed that flight MS181 to Cairo, flying from Alexandria was hijacked. The passenger jet was carrying 81 passengers and landed at Larnaka International Airport on the island of Cyprus.
The Airbus 320 aircraft departed on Tuesday morning. After take-off, an individual on board announced he was wearing a belt with explosives, Dubai-based AL Arabiya reported.
EgyptAir has since tweeted that all passengers have been released except four "foreigners" and the crew.
Despite the negative travel news, the FTSE 100 index traded up 0.8%, or 47.32 points, to 6,13.30 soon after the open.
The FTSE 250 was up 0.4% at 16,739.68 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.2% at 709.84. In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.1% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.8%.
In Asia Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.8% and the Hang Seng is flat.
On the London Stock Exchange, broker rating changes were the main drivers for stocks. Budget airline easyJet was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 3.1% after Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised the stock to Buy, according to traders.
Meanwhile, specialty chemicals company Synthomer was one of the worst performers in the FTSE 250, down 1.8%, after Berenberg cut it to Hold from Buy.
Soft drinks maker AG Barr was maginally lower, down 0.3%, after it reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year, although revenue fell slightly in a challenging market which faced a tough comparative the year before.
The company said its pretax profit in the year ended January 30 rose to GBP41.3 million from GBP38.6 million the year before, as revenue fell slightly to GBP258.6 million from GBP260.9 million.
Profit was lifted as there were no exceptional items in the year, compared with an exceptional cost of GBP3.3 million in the year before. The prior year's pretax profit would have been higher at GBP41.9 million without the exceptional cost.
Chief Executive Roger White briefly noted the recently announced plans by the UK government to place a levy on drinks with high levels of added sugar, a move which hit shares in AG Barr following the Budget.
"Although the details of the chancellor's proposed soft drinks levy are still to be consulted upon, we believe our combination of brand strength, ongoing product reformulation and consumer driven innovation will allow us to minimise the financial impact on the business at the proposed point of implementation in April 2018," he said.
Cadogan Petroleum confirmed it has made a "highly preliminary approach" to potentially combine the company with fellow London-listed firm Ascent Resources, but stressed there is no guarantee a deal will be signed.
Ascent said late last week it had received a preliminary takeover approach from Cadogan, and also said the approach may or may not lead to a firm offer being made.
Cadogan has until April 21 to make a firm offer or walk away from the deal under UK takeover rules.
Ascent was the best performer in the AIM All-Share index, up 41%. Cadogan shares were up 2.6%.
Mobile marketing services company CDialogues was the worst performer in the AIM All-Share index down 32% after it said its earnings for 2015 will be significantly lower due to weaker revenue and squeezed margins.
The company said earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation will be less than EUR1.6 million for the year to the end of December, compared to EUR2.9 million the year earlier.
The group said revenue was weaker and project margins were thinner. This was exacerbated by investments in new projects.
Still ahead in the economic calendar, the focus will be on US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen who is due to make a speech at the Economic Club of New York Luncheon at 1730 BST, her first since the Fed's March policy announcement. There will also be a speech from John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, at 1015 BST.
Elsewhere, private loan and money supply data for the eurozone are at 0900 BST, while the US Redbook index is at 1355 BST, just before the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices at 1400 BST and US consumer confidence at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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