Pets at home Share News (PETS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher following encouraging news from the US-Mexico trade talks, as Ferrexpo and Games Workshop gave the mid-cap FTSE 250 index a lift with positive trading updates. The FTSE 100 index was up 41.07 points, or 0.6%, at 7,300.45 early Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 30.92 points, or 0.2%, at 19,096.44. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.93 points, or 0.1%, at 936.52.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.6% at 12,383.87. The Cboe 250 was up 0.14% at 17,153.01, and the Cboe Small Companies was up 0.1% at 11,731.11.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.7% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.5% in early trading.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2703 early Friday, lower than USD1.2721 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro was quoted at USD1.1262, down from USD1.1292 late Thursday."Wall Street extended gains overnight on rate-cut hopes and optimism that the US and Mexico are moving closer to a resolution over immigration issues. This could see the US hold back on imposing new tariffs on goods," said London Capital's Jasper Lawler.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.6% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.5%.In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5%. The Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong markets were closed Friday for the Dragon Boat festival holiday in China."There is a good chance that the markets are getting ahead of themselves here. History tells us that there have only been a limited number of occasions where Trump hasn't stuck to his word over a trade tariff threat. Mexico is pushing for more time but we are less convinced than the markets that Trump will grant it," Lawler added.Mexico and the US reported progress in their talks on illegal migration on Thursday, but Washington said it was not yet sufficient to prevent US President Donald Trump from slapping a tariff on all Mexican imports."I think that progress is being made," said Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard, who heads the country's delegation to Washington."However we don't have a deal, but we have presented our point of view. Tomorrow we will have another round [of talks]," Ebrard told journalists at the end of Thursday's talks.In London early Friday, Sage Group was sitting at the bottom of the FTSE 100, down 1.6%, after Deutsche Bank cut the stock to Sell from Hold.Royal Dutch Shell A and B shares both were up 1.0% in early trade amid higher oil prices. Brent oil was quoted at USD62.88 a barrel, up from USD60.52 late Thursday. Ferrexpo surged to the top of the midcap index, gaining 8.2%, after it said higher pricing, production and sales volumes will result in a material year-on-year rise in first-half adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation. For the six months to June 30, 2018, the company recorded adjusted Ebitda of USD234 million on a revenue of USD617 million. Total pellet production stood at 5.1 million tonnes.The company also announced the appointment of former Ernst & Young executive Graeme Dacomb as independent non-executive director. Dacomb was a partner at accountancy firm Ernst & Young for 26 years. For the past 12 years, he was a lead EY partner in the extractive industry, responsible for providing services to mining and oil & gas companies.Dacomb will be chairing the company's audit committee and will be a member of the independent review committee which is looking into matters relating to Blooming Land charity matter.In April, Ferrexpo's auditor Deloitte LLP resigned amid a dispute over potential links between the company's chief executive and a charity being probed for misuse of funds. Ferrexpo disagreed with its auditor's conclusion of a link between Kostyantin Zhevago, its chief executive and controlling shareholder, and Blooming Land Charity, which is being investigated for possible misuse of funds. Games Workshop was up 5.3% after saying positive trading continued in its recently ended financial year, and guided for both revenue and profit to rise. For the year ended June 2, the FTSE 250 firm said it expects revenue to be GBP254 million and pretax profit to come in at "not less" than GBP80 million. A year ago, revenue amounted to GBP219.9 million, while pretax profit was GBP74.5 million.Pets At Homes was stuck to the bottom of the FTSE 250, losing 3.2%, after HSBC cut the stock to Hold from Buy. Royal Mail suffered a similar fate, off 2.9% after HSBC cut it to Hold from Buy.Elsewhere, Swiss Re subsidiary ReAssure Group said Friday it is planning to float on the London Main Market. The IPO will consist of insurance giant Swiss Re AG selling its shares in the UK life insurance consolidator.Swiss Re announced in August 2018 it was exploring a possible initial public offering of its ReAssure business. If the IPO goes ahead, Swiss Re will take its holding in the business to below 50% from 75% currently.ReAssure has 4.3 million policies in the UK with GBP68.7 billion in assets under management. According to the company, it is the sixth largest life insurance group in the UK.ReAssure acquires and manages closed-book life insurance policies; it does not write new business.Later on Friday, focus will turn to the release of US nonfarm payrolls at 1330 BST.Lawler said: "All eyes are now on the US nonfarm payroll report. 175,000 jobs are expected to have been created in May, below the 263,000 created in April. Unemployment is expected to remain steady at 3.6%, whilst average hourly earnings are forecast to tick higher to 0.3% month-on-month, up from 0.2% in April."