Virgin Money Holdings Share News (VM.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Monday following strong gains overnight by Asian markets buoyed by positive US jobs data, as the market started the week with more merger and acquisition activity. The FTSE 100 index was up 0.6%, or 49.63 points, at 7,751.40 early Monday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.4% at 21.071.44. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 1,087.38.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.7% at 13,142.31, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.4% at 19,232.36, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 12.695.78.Restricting early gains was a stronger pound. "The FTSE faces the headwind of pound strength and the dollar's weakness despite expectations that the US Fed will raise key interest rates at next week's FOMC meeting," Dulken added.Michael van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.The US Federal Open Market Committee meeting next week with a policy announcement due on Wednesday.On Friday, the US Labor Department reported that employment in the US jumped by much more than anticipated in the month of May, as non-farm payroll employment surged up by 223,000 jobs in May after climbing by a downwardly revised 159,000 jobs in April.Ahead of a G7 summit, finance ministers said US President Donald Trump still has time to avoid a trade war over tariff hikes aimed at Canada, the EU and Mexico."We still have a few days to take the necessary steps to avoid a trade war between the EU and the US, and to avoid a trade war among G7 members," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters."The ball is in the camp of the US, it is up to the American administration to take the right decisions to smooth the situation and to alleviate the difficulties," he added.Canada and the EU have both filed cases at the World Trade Organization challenging tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminium imports to the US announced by Trump on Thursday. Mexico is also affected by the tariffs.China warned at the end of a top-level meeting with US trade officials Sunday that deals will not take effect if Washington goes ahead and enacts tariffs on Chinese imports.The statement came an hour after a meeting between US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He aimed at finding ways to narrow the countries' trade deficitIn Asia on Monday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 1.6%.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3375 early Monday, higher than USD1.3350 at the London equities close on Friday, ahead of UK construction PMI data at 0930 BST."Pound traders looking towards the construction PMI this morning, may be disappointed. The rebound in April following a particularly weak March is set to ease in May, with the PMI easing back to 52 from 52.5. A softer than forecast reading could see the pound aim back down towards USD1.33 and pull house builder stocks lower," said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital.The international economic events calendar on Monday also has eurozone producer prices at 1000 BST and South Africa business confidence data at 1030 BST. On the London Stock Exchange, DS Smith was the best blue-chip performer at the open, up 2.1% after giving an offer to acquire Spanish-listed packaging business Europac for EUR16.80 per share, valuing the whole company's equity at EUR1.67 billion and giving an enterprise value including debt of EUR1.90 billion. For 2017, Europac reported revenue of EUR868 million and earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation of EUR158 million.The acquisition will be financed by a rights issue to raise GBP1.00 billion to be launched in June, plus a debt facility of EUR740 million. The rights issue is fully underwritten by Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and has not yet been priced.Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the acquisition is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2018, DS Smith said. So far DS Smith has received undertakings to accept the acquisition from 59% of the entire share capital of Europac.DS Smith said that since the start of the current financial year on May 1, its group performance has continued to be in line with management expectations.Johnson Matthey opened as the second best performer, up 2.0% as Bernstein raised its price target on the specialty chemical stock to 4,100 pence, retaining its Outperform rating.Airline EasyJet was up 1.3% after Deutsche Bank raised its price target to 1,915 pence from 1,560p, while keeping its Hold rating.In the FTSE 250, CYBG was the best performer, up 2.8% after reporting it is in discussions with Virgin Money Holdings over a revised merger proposal, increasing its offer to 1.2125 CYBG shares for each Virgin Money share, which would give Virgin Money shareholders a 38% interest in the combined group.The offer reflects a 7.0% increase in the exchange ratio, compared to the previous terms for 1.1297 CYBG shares for each Virgin Money share. Shares in Virgin Money were up 0.4%.The euro was quoted higher at USD1.1711 early Monday, up 0.2% from USD1.1672 at the European equities close Friday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.6% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.9% early Monday.