Just Eat Share News (JE.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London were higher early Friday, lifted by heavyweight miners, which rose as commodities traded higher amid easing trade-war fears.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.8%, or 61.30 points, at 7,428.62 early Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.4% at 20,636.72. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.2% at 1,096.50.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.7% at 12,591.39, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 18,721.94, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 12,186.95."Persistent US dollar weakness (3-month lows versus major peers) is helping commodities, with metals, and oil trading higher, which may further help FTSE heavyweights, particularly miners, extending the sector's recent reversal," commented Michael van Dulken, head of Research at Accendo markets.Brent oil was quoted at USD79.01 a barrel at the equities open, firm from USD78.86 at the close on Thursday.Gold was quoted at USD1,210.09 an ounce at the London equities open, up from USD1,204.01 on Thursday.Miners led the FTSE 100 index. Glencore was up 2.7%, Anglo American up 2.6%, Rio Tinto was up 2.0% and BHP Billiton up 1.9%.Barclays was up 1.3%, after the bank said it had resolved problems which left customers struggling to log in to their bank accounts. The bank said the problems, which started at around 10 am on Thursday, had affected its website and telephone banking.Customers had been able to use the mobile phone app, although some mobile banking features also had been affected.Barclays, which has around 24 million customers, confirmed late on Thursday afternoon that the problems had been fixed.Smiths Group opened at the bottom of the index, down 8.9% after the engineering firm reported a fall in pretax profit for the year to the end of July to GBP435 million from GBP601 million the year before, due to restructuring and administration costs.This was on revenue that declined by 2.0% to GBP3.12 billion from GBP3.28 billion, as a result of adverse foreign exchange translations.In addition, Smiths said it will sell its sterile water bottling business to Amsino Healthcare (USA) for USD40 million, in order to concentrate the group's portfolio on its leading positions in Smiths' chosen markets.Takeaway delivery firm Just Eat was the second-worst blue chip performer, down 5.2% after JP Morgan said that it would be under pressure to invest more following a report by the Financial Times that Uber Technologies is in early discussions to acquire Roofoods Ltd, better known as Deliveroo.The FT said Uber is willing to invest and partner with rivals to strengthen its position in ride-hailing and food delivery markets prior to its planned initial public offering next year.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3240 early Friday, lower than USD1.3265 at the London equities close on Thursday.UK Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said Britain is "preparing hard" for a no-deal Brexit, although he predicted a "sensible agreement" will be reached with Brussels.But European Council President Donald Tusk stressed that economic aspects of May's Chequers proposals "will not work", while former Brexit secretary David Davis disclosed a "rock-solid core" of up to 40 Tory colleagues could vote against the government's favoured approach.May remains wedded to the Chequers blueprint, noting it is the only proposal on the table as the deadline approaches, although she indicated the UK will unveil new measures on the future status of the Northern Irish border in a bid to break the deadlock.She had flatly rejected a European Commission backstop proposal for Northern Ireland to remain within the EU customs area after Brexit, arguing this would draw a border down the Irish Sea."In truth, of course, we already knew that May's proposals on those fronts were untenable, and that, to secure a deal, she'd have to change course. And it was always unlikely that yesterday's Summit was going to provide a breakthrough in the negotiations. But the nature of her treatment heaps further pressure on the UK PM ahead of her Conservative Party's conference, which kicks off on September 30," said Chris Scicluna, analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets.The euro was quoted at USD1.1796 early Friday, higher that USD1.1760 at the European equities close Thursday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.6% early Friday.In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed 0.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed 2.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 1.6% higher.