Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened in the green on Wednesday amid hopes that there will be an easing of tensions between the US and China at this week's G20 summit. In London, travel firms On the Beach and Thomas Cook were topping and tailing the FTSE 250, while investor focus lies on the banking sector ahead of the Bank of England's annual stress test results due in the afternoon. The FTSE 100 was up 21.29 points, or 0.3%, at 7,038.14 early Wednesday. The FTSE 250 was up 32.76 points, or 0.2%, at 18,693.65 and the AIM All-Share flat at 925.38.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 11,942.67, the Cboe UK 250 up 0.1% at 16807.53, but the Cboe UK Small Companies down 0.1% at 11,402.00.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.4% and 0.3% respectively. Sentiment was boosted on Wednesday after White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said the Trump administration has restarted talks with the Chinese government "at all levels" and that the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting offers an "opportunity to break through"."In his view there is a good possibility that a deal can be made and [Trump] is open to it," Kudlow said. But he warned that if conditions are not met on issues such as intellectual property theft and other practices that Trump has called unfair, the president is "perfectly happy" to stand on his tariff policies.CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson commented: "His comments that US officials were having discussions at a number of levels of government has raised expectations about some form of agreement, though these comments were caveated with the proviso that China needed to do more for that to happen.""Nonetheless equity markets have chosen to focus on the positive with Asia markets also pushing higher ahead of the key meeting on Saturday with President's Trump and Xi, while the continued stabilisation in oil prices is also helping sentiment," Hewson continued.Shares in Asia rallied overnight, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ending up 1.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 1.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed up 1.3%.On the London Stock Exchange, Marks & Spencer was down 2.8% after RBC cut its rating on the clothing, homeware and food retailer to Sector Perform from Outperform. In the FTSE 250, On the Beach rose 4.2% after strong annual revenue and profit growth.Revenue for the year to September 30 grew 25% to GBP104.1 million, as pretax profit rose 24% to GBP26.1 million. The beach holiday travel firm's dividend for the year was 18% higher at 3.3p.In current trading, the FTSE 250 constituent said the seasonally quieter first quarter of its new financial year has seen a "strong" early trading performance, supported by a slightly earlier release of summer capacity by major low-cost air carriers, lower year-on-year seat prices for winter departures, and efficiency in marketing spend."This current performance is in line with our expectations and the board believes the business is well positioned for the key trading period that commences in late December and continues into Q1 2019," On the Beach said. Fellow travel firm Thomas Cook, meanwhile, got off to another tough start on Wednesday following Tuesday's 23% fall. The stock was down 9.1% in early trade on Wednesday following Tuesday's profit warning, as Morgan Stanley cut its rating on the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. In Wednesday's economic calendar, and French third-quarter GDP is out at 0745 GMT while Ireland's retail sales are at 1100 GMT. In the US, third-quarter GDP is at 1330 GMT along with core personal consumption expenditures at the same time. At 1700 GMT, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks in New York.In the UK, the Bank of England will release its annual stress test results for major UK banks at 1630 GMT."Banking stocks in the UK have had a disappointing year, weighed down by concerns about a no deal Brexit which would suggest that a lot of the bad news is already baked into the price, with Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland both down over 15% year to date," said CMC's Hewson.Ahead of the results, Lloyds Banking was up 1.2%, Standard Chartered up 1.1% Barclays up 0.9%, HSBC Holdings up 0.3%, Royal Bank of Scotland up 0.5% and CYBG up 0.2%.The stress test comes as the UK government is to set out its analysis of the economic impact of Brexit as Theresa May battles to save her deal for leaving the EU.Downing Street said the papers will cover a "range of scenarios" as the prime minister seeks to press her case that the agreement represents the only way to protect jobs and investment while avoiding the chaos of a no-deal break.She will then travel to Scotland for another day of campaigning as she appeals over the heads of MPs to ordinary voters to support her plan. The Treasury analysis is expected to conclude the UK will be far better off under the terms of May's controversial agreement with Brussels than if it faced a disorderly Brexit with a no-deal break.In UK data already out, figures from the latest BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index showed shop prices in are almost unchanged from last Christmas in good news for consumers but a continuation of difficult conditions for struggling retailers.Overall prices were 0.1% higher in November compared with a year ago, making it just the third month of inflation in five years, according to the index. Food inflation accelerated to 1.6% this month from 1.3% in October, partly due to higher global cereal prices pushing up on the prices of several products.Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at Nielsen, said: "With the recent slowdown in sales growth across food retailing and the start of seasonal advertising, we can expect further price cuts as the battle for shopper loyalty this Christmas begins to heat up."