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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks opened brightly again Tuesday, with oil companies leading gains after some stabilisation in oil prices as corporate news thins ahead of the Christmas holiday.
The FTSE 100 traded up 0.6% at 6,073.48, the FTSE 250 was up 0.5% at 17,153.60 and the AIM All-Share index was flat at 724.64.
European equities similarly have had a positive start, with the CAC 40 in Paris up 0.5% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt up 0.9%.
Asian markets were narrowly mixed. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed down 0.2%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ended up 0.2% and the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.3%.
Oil companies BG Group, up 2.3% and BP, up 1.5% were amongst the best performers in the FTSE 100 after seeing their share price retrace some of the late declines on Monday as oil prices slipped. On Tuesday, just after the equities open, Brent oil traded at USD36.56 a barrel, compared to USD36.18 at the close on Monday.
ITV was one of the worst performers in the FTSE 100, down 1.0%, following a report in US entertainment trade magazine Variety that US media giant Comcast has dismissed a UK press report that it is considering a GBP11.0 billion bid for the British broadcaster.
"We don't comment on M&A rumours but the speculation on ITV is just completely inaccurate," spokesman John Demming told Variety.
The Mail on Sunday had reported that talks had been held between ITV and Comcast's TV and film arm NBCUniversal, sending shares in ITV up on Monday.
Marks & Spencer traded down 1.3% and Next was down 0.8%, both had their price target cut by Nomura, which cited clothing sales data from Kantar Worldpanel.
Hansteen Holdings traded up 1.0% after it acquired a further 31.6 million units in the Ashtenne Industrial Fund from Britel Fund Trustees for GBP15.4 million in cash, equivalent to 0.4869 pence per unit. The price represents an effective 5.0% discount to Hansteen's carrying value for the fund as recorded on June 30.
Meanwhile, the property investment company, said AIF has sold 10 properties in individual transactions for a total of GBP20.0 million, equal to a GBP3.0 million over book value recorded on December 31, 2014 and about GBP400,000 over the latest valuation.
On the AIM market, RapidCloud International was by far the worst performer, down 40%. The computing services company said profit and revenue in 2015 will miss market expectations due to issues in its markets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, as well as due to investments it has made throughout the year.
The company said the implementation of a new goods and services tax in Malaysia meant many companies chose not to invest in IT in the year, while the Malaysian economy overall weakened in the face of lower oil prices.
Meanwhile, growth was slower than anticipated in Singapore, while operations in Indonesia have taken longer than expected to become established.
RapidCloud now expects revenue in 2015 to be at a similar level to that achieved in 2014, and this combined with costs associated with investments the company has made during the year mean that profit also will be materially lower than both market expectations and the level of profit made last year.
fastjet shares fell 11% after the African airline said challenging market conditions and currency headwinds will lead to lower than anticipated revenue in 2015 and 2016.
Still ahead in the economic calendar, UK public sector net borrowing is due at 0930 GMT. In the afternoon, the final reading of US third quarter GDP and US personal consumption expenditure prices are both at 1330 GMT. US housing price index is at 1355 GMT and existing home sales at 1500 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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