LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened marginally higher on Wednesday shaking off concerns over Italy exiting the Euro after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the single currency was "unrenounceable"."Italy is a founder member of the EU and of the monetary union and I want to reiterate that," Conte said on Facebook.Concerns about Italy's budget plan also eased amid hopes that the country plans to reduce its budget deficit to 2% in 2021.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.2% at 7,490.39. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.1% at 20,284.24. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 1,092.74.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 12,700.83, the Cboe UK 250 was flat at 18,387.61, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 12,118.93."Italians are simply not ready to bow to the EU like the Greeks did. Looking back at the situation, even Greece did put up a big fight before submitting to the EU's will. The European Commission wants the Italian government to bootstrap its expenses and start paying respect to the fiscal rules. However, the Italian government is of the mind frame that we do not need to dictated by the EU," said ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam.On the London Stock Exchange,
Vodafone Group was the best blue chip performer, up 1.6% after the telecommunications company's Italian unit bought spectrums to enable the deployment of 5G technology for EUR2.40 billion. The spectrum was acquired in an auction by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and includes ranges of 3700 megahertz to 80 MHz for EUR1.68 billion, 700 MHz to 2x 10 MHz for EUR683 million, and 26 gigahertz to 200 MHz for EUR33 million. The company said the spectrum will deliver network operating efficiencies able to meet future increases in data traffic. At the other end of the large cap index,
Tesco was the worst performer, down 4.7% despite the supermarket chain saying it is "firmly" on track to meet its medium-term ambitions after reporting growth in the first half of its financial year.For the six months to August 25, the FTSE 100 grocer posted a rise in pretax profit of 2% year-on-year to GBP564 million from GBP553 million. Revenue, including VAT and fuel, came in 12% higher than the prior year at GBP31.73 billion versus GBP28.33 billion.By geography, the UK & Ireland - Tesco's biggest market - saw like-for-like sales up 3.8% year-on-year to GBP25.70 billion, Central Europe sales dipped 1.5% to GBP3.11 billion due to changed to Sunday opening regulations in Poland and Asia sales declined 7% to GBP2.36 billion."The proposed Sainsbury/Asda merger would add another level of competition within the sector, the discounters continue to pile on the pressure and Amazon also casts its own long shadow. Sales in Central Europe and Asia remain laboured, although improving in the latter, whilst the UK consumer will likely look to carry on being driven by price as the economic implications of Brexit emerge," said Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter.Tesco hiked its interim dividend by 67% to 1.67 pence per share from 1.0p a year ago."Although the dividend has been increased, itself a clear sign of management optimism, the yield of around 2% is hardly an attraction given the current interest rate environment," Hunter added. Elsewhere,
Aston Martin Lagonda is targeting a GBP4.33 billion market capitalisation as it priced its initial public offering.The GBP4.33 billion market cap would give the James Bond carmaker a shot at inclusion in the FTSE 100 index.Aston Martin is to offer shares at GBP19.00 each. The offer is made up of 57.0 million shares sold by some existing shareholders, worth GBP1.08 billion and made up of 25% of its existing share capital.Aston Martin had in mid-September given a GBP17.50 to GBP22.50 price range for its IPO, meaning its decided price is in the middle-to-lower part of the range. The Financial Times reported on Monday the firm had cut the range to GBP18.50 to GBP20.Further, Aston Martin is offering an over-allotment of 5.7 million shares which would increase the offer size to GBP1.19 billion.Conditional dealings in Aston Martin shares will start on Wednesday, before unconditional dealings on Monday next week. "We are delighted by the positive response we have received from investors across the world and are very pleased to welcome our new shareholders to the register. We are excited about the momentum across the company and are fully focused on continuing to deliver our exciting growth strategy through the Second Century Plan," said Chief Executive Andy Palmer. The economic events calendar on Wednesday has services PMI readings from Italy at 0845 BST, France at 0850 BST, and the eurozone at 0900 BST.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris is up 0.4%. Stock markets in Germany are closed for the Day of German Unity.The pound was quoted at USD1.3004 early Wednesday compared to USD1.2979 at the London equities close Tuesday, ahead of UK services PMI data at 0930 BST.The services sector is the single largest contributor to UK economic growth as it covers areas such as retail sales, tourism and banking. The PMI reading is expected to decelerate to 54.0 in September.Ahead, Prime Minister May takes to the stage at the Conservative conference in Birmingham on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after 1,500 delegates gave a thunderous standing ovation to Boris Johnson as he branded her Brexit plans a "constitutional outrage" that would humiliate the UK.In one of the most important speeches of her political career, May will seek to rally her fractious party behind her by declaring that the UK's post-Brexit future is "full of promise".May said she was "cross" with her former foreign secretary, accusing him of being ready to "tear up" her guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland that there would be no customs border down the Irish Sea.But in her keynote speech, May will focus on her hopes for a brighter future after Brexit."I passionately believe that our best days lie ahead of us and that our future is full of promise," she will say.In US economic news later Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will speak at the Atlantic Festival in Partnership with the Aspen Institute at 2100 BST.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2%. Financial markets in China remain closed for a week-long holiday.The services sector in Japan continued to expand in September, but at a sharply slower pace, the latest survey from Nikkei revealed with a two-year low services PMI score of 50.2.That's down from 51.5 in August, although it remains barely above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. The survey also said that the composite index fell to 50.7 in September, down from 52.0 in August.
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