Taylor Wimpey Share News (TW.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Friday, with the FTSE 100 staging a mild rebound after incurring heavy losses on Thursday, while investor focus will shift to the US nonfarm payrolls report due in the afternoon. The FTSE 100 index was up 56.61 points, or 0.7%, in early dealings to 6,760.66. The large cap index fell to its lowest level in two years, closing down 217.79 points, or 3.2%, at 6,704.05 on Thursday. The FTSE 250 was up 126.46 points, or 0.7%, at 17,879.39 and the AIM All-Share was 0.5% higher at 893.93.The Cboe UK 100 was up 1.4% at 11,477.55, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.6% at 15,956.74. The Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,162.06.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 1.0% and 0.4%, respectively.Concerns about an escalation in US-China trade tensions and of a global economic slowdown had contributed to a sell-off in stock markets across the globe on Thursday. Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on Saturday, reportedly on suspicion of violating US trade sanctions against Iran, and faces extradition to the US. This has raised fears that the US and China won't be able to reach agreement on a long-term trade deal in the immediate future. "Though Beijing are very much displeased with the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the fact the country nevertheless announced it was 'immediately' applying the trade truce measures agreed with the US appears to have helped reassure the markets that the relationship between the two superpowers hasn't yet reverted back to its warmongering worst," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said China has reached a consensus in trade negotiations with the US on agricultural products, energy and autos and will begin implementing the terms of those agreements "immediately".On the London Stock Exchange, Berkeley Group was up 2.6% after the housebuilder pledged to keep returning cash to shareholders, despite interim profit falling amid Brexit-related uncertainty.For the six months to the end of October, pretax profit dropped by 26% to GBP401.2 million from GBP539.9 million a year before, on revenue that dropped slightly to GBP1.65 billion from GBP1.66 billion.Berkeley said it will return GBP139.7 million to shareholders by September 30 next year and expects to return at least GBP16.34 per share to shareholders by September 30, 2021, through either dividends or share buybacks. Its share price early Friday was GBP34.07.Berkeley declared an interim dividend of 7.12 pence.Fellow housebuilders, Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon were up 1.9%, 1.2% and 1.0%, respectively. At the other end of the large cap index, Associated British Foods was the worst performer, down 2.6% after the company said trading at its Primark clothing chain was challenging during November in a tough retail market.However, with "careful inventory management and improved margins" the company's expectation for an increase in Primark's profit remains unchanged. The company, which is holding its annual general meeting on Friday, said profit at its sugar unit AB Sugar will be significantly lower "reflecting the full-year effect of EU sugar prices".In addition, AB Foods said sales and profit for the first eight weeks of trading in its current financial year were in line with expectations.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.8% on Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed marginally higher, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed down 0.3%.Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Friday after US stock markets recovered from an early plunge to end mixed overnight, helped by hopes the Federal Reserve could pause its interest-rate hikes.The pound was flat quoted at USD1.2764, from USD1.2765 at the London equities close Thursday.In political news, Prime Minister Theresa May will deploy government ministers to sell her Brexit deal around the UK on Friday after Tory backbenchers handed her a possible lifeline to get it through Parliament.Senior Cabinet ministers, including Chancellor Philip Hammond and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, are among those who will make another late push to garner support for May's Withdrawal Agreement ahead of Tuesday's vote.The move is likely to be seen as a bid to bolster flagging support for May ahead of a crunch Commons vote on her EU withdrawal deal next Tuesday - a showdown the PM made clear on Thursday morning she would not postpone.But it remains to be seen whether it goes far enough to win over enough Tory Brexiteers to get the deal through the Commons. The alteration would mean Parliament would have to approve a decision to trigger the backstop arrangement or extend the transition period beyond December 2020.Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ended its talks on a possible oil production cut without announcing any results on Thursday, ahead of Friday's negotiations that are meant to bring Russia on board for a broader supply deal. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters Thursday evening that the reduction would be "probably" in the range of 1 million barrels a day. He added that it was not certain whether an agreement can be achieved the next day with a Russia-led group of non-OPEC countries.Brent was quoted at USD60.06 a barrel up from USD58.97 late Thursday."I think that one million barrels per day is the number which is priced in the market so far. If we see production cut over 1.4 million barrels per day, this could bring some spike in the oil price. Crude price could jump from its current level of USD51 to USD55. As for the other side of the coin, anything less than a million could support the bear case and the price could drop to USD45," said ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam.In economic news Friday, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed that Germany's industrial production decreased for the first time in three months in October, defying expectations for a modest increase, amid a decline in consumer goods output. Industrial production dropped 0.5% from September, when it grew 0.1%, revised from 0.2%. Economists had forecast a 0.3% increase. The latest fall was the first since a 1% slump in July. On a year-on-year basis, industrial production increased 1.6% in October after a 0.7% gain in September. Economists had expected a 2.1% rise.The euro was quoted at USD1.1373 firm from USD1.1372 late Thursday.The economic events calendar on Friday has eurozone GDP figures at 1000 GMT. In addition, the closely watched US jobs report for November will be released at 1330 GMT. The economy is expected to have added 199,000 jobs with a jobless rate of 3.7%.