LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened mixed on Monday, with oil majors among the best performers in the FTSE 100 on a firm oil price and rising tensions between the US and Iran, while airlines fell after Ryanair reported a drop in annual profit. The FTSE 100 was up 7.30 points, or 0.1%, at 7,355.92. The FTSE 250 was down 19.71 points, or 0.1% at 19,478.90. The AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 960.10.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.1% at 12,475.79. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,503.40, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,850.56.In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.1%. In the FTSE 100, oil majors were the best performer, tracking spot oil prices higher, quoted at USD73.20 Monday, up from USD72.60 at the London equities close Friday.Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were both up 0.7% and BP was up 0.6%. Shell is London's biggest company by market capitalisation, while BP is third.Oil prices were higher after Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih indicated there was consensus among OPEC and allied oil producers to continue limiting supplies.London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler commented: "Oil has already rallied around 40% since the start of the year, thanks mainly to OPEC limiting supply. Investors had been growing nervous that OPEC could look to remove the production limits at its next meeting in June, in light of tightening global supply and elevated prices. "Whilst the OPEC production cuts have offered significant support to oil prices, US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have also played a role. Add into the equation rising Middle Eastern tensions, as Iran retaliates to US measures and oil looks well supported at these levels."At the other end of the large cap index, airline stocks were the worst performers following disappointing annual results from Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings. Ryanair shares were down 6.4%. easyJet was down 2.5% and British Airways-parent International Consolidated Airlines Group was down 1.5%.Ryanair reported a significant fall in annual profit due to increased fuel, airport and staff costs, and it said it has "zero" visibility on its likely results beyond the first half of the current year.For the financial year ended March 31, the Irish budget airline reported pretax profit of EUR948.1 million, down 41% from EUR1.61 billion the year prior. This included a pretax loss of EUR182.7 million at Lauda, Ryanair's Austrian airline established by former Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda and acquired by Ryanair in December.Fuel & oil costs rose 23% to EUR2.42 billion from EUR1.90 billion, staff costs increased 28% to EUR945.0 million from EUR738.5 million, and airport charges rose 9% to EUR1.02 billion from EUR938.6 million, hurting profit.In the FTSE 250, Aston Martin Lagonda was the best performer, up 4.6% after Bernstein raised the luxury sports car maker to Outperform from Market Perform. At the other end of the midcap index, Merlin Entertainments was the worst performer, down 4.8% after HSBC downgraded the amusement park and attractions operator to Reduce from Buy. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.7%Japan's gross domestic product climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.5% on quarter in the first quarter of 2019, the Cabinet Office said in Monday's preliminary reading.That beat forecasts for a fall 0.1% and was up from the downwardly revised 0.4% gain in the three months prior, which was originally reported as 0.5%. On an annualized yearly basis, GDP was up 2.1% - again exceeding expectations for a fall of 0.2% following the downwardly revised 1.6% gain in the previous three months - originally 1.9%.The pound was quoted at USD1.2732 Monday, flat against USD1.2737 at the London equities close Friday.UK Prime Minister Theresa May is set to begin discussions with senior ministers on her proposed new "bold offer" to members of Parliament in a final attempt to get her Brexit deal through Parliament.The weekly meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday is expected to sign off on a package of measures to be included in the forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement Bill aimed at winning cross-party support.However, there was widespread scepticism at Westminster that it will fare any better than her three previous failed attempts to get the Commons to pass the deal.Following the collapse last week of cross-party talks with Labour aimed at reaching a common approach, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he had not yet seen anything new that would persuade him to support it."Politics will continue to hog the lime-light in the UK in the coming week, although all indications now are that Theresa May will eschew the series of indicative Brexit votes in Parliament that was at one stage mooted for the first half of this week. With the next key Brexit event now likely to be the 'second reading' vote on May's Withdrawal Agreement Bill in the week commencing 3 June, all eyes this week will be on the European Parliament election on Thursday, which looks set to see May's Conservatives humiliated," said analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets. The economic events calendar on Monday has eurozone current account numbers at 1000 BST.
2 Mar 2016 09:35
