LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Monday, with the FTSE 100 index climbing above the 7,000 mark, recovering from last week's Brexit-related losses after the European Union signed off on the UK's deal to exit the bloc. Individual stocks reflected a risk-on attitude among investors.The FTSE 100 was up 74.79 points, or 1.1%, at 7,028.84 in early trade. The FTSE 250 was up 106.63 points, or 0.6%, at 18,639.64 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.4% at 927.09.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.9% at 11,900.15, the Cboe UK 250 up 0.2% at 16,715.35 with the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,389.61."Jumping just over 1%, the FTSE found itself climbing on Monday morning, recovering a decent chunk of the end of last week's losses in the process," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed up 1.7%.On the London Stock Exchange, John Wood Group was the best blue-chip performer, up 3.5% after HSBC raised the oilfield services company to Buy from Hold. Fresnillo was up 3.2% rebounding from sharp losses last week, when the gold miner had been hit by a broker downgrade about concerns over mining restrictions in Mexico. The stock fell 11% last week. Banks were in the green, clawing back Brexit-related losses, with Barclays, up 2.4%, HSBC up 2.3%, and Royal Bank of Scotland up 2.2%.The FTSE 350 Banks sector index was the second-best performing sector after Oil Services. The bank index was up 2.0%. At the other end of the FTSE 100, tobacco producers, which often rise during times of market turmoil, were among a handful of fallers, with British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands down 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively, as demand for defensive stocks waned.Elsewhere, Faroe Petroleum was up 22% at 153.50 pence after Norwegian oil and gas company DNO announced a GBP607.9 million hostile takeover offer, just over six months after first taking a stake in the AIM-listed oil and gas company.DNO, which holds a 28% stake in Faroe, made a 152.00 pence cash offer directly to Faroe Petroleum shareholders. The offer represents a 21% premium to Faroe's closing share price of 125.80p on Friday and a 45% premium to when DNO first acquired shares in April at 105p.The pound was firm at USD1.2836 early Monday from USD1.2806 at the London equities close Friday, after the European Union signed off on UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement."The pound remains little changed this morning. Markets remain acutely aware that PM May's task of obtaining parliamentary approval for the deal is likely to prove more challenging," analysts at Lloyds said. May will challenge MPs to back her Brexit plan or risk crashing out of the EU without an agreement. The UK prime minister will face the Commons after EU leaders endorsed the deal and made it clear it was not up for renegotiation. May will tell the Commons "with absolute certainty" that "there is not a better deal available".The prime minister, who will chair a meeting of her Cabinet on Monday morning, will warn rejecting her deal will "open the door to more division and uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail".At a historic summit in Brussels on Sunday, the leaders of the remaining 27 member states took less than 40 minutes to approve the deal.May will now put it to a vote of MPs before Christmas but faces a battle to get it through the House of Commons in the face of intense opposition on both the Leave and Remain-supporting wings of her party.In addition, May's proposed Brexit deal would shrink the value of the UK's economy by 3.9% a year by 2030, independent analysis has suggested.May's negotiated deal to exit the EU would leave the UK GBP100 billion a year poorer, a report by the National Institute of Economic & Social Research found.NIESR's analysis, commissioned by the People's Vote campaign, concluded the UK's gross domestic product per head would fall by 3% a year, amounting to an average cost per person a year of GBP1,090 at today's prices - the equivalent of losing the economic output of Wales or the City of London.In a shortened trading session in the US on Friday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.7%, S&P 500 down 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.5%.Still to come in the economic calendar there are UK mortgage approvals figures at 0930 GMT.
17 Dec 2015 12:27
