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LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London were slightly higher Friday morning, with some miners giving back their strong gains on Thursday, while investors await US nonfarm payrolls report later in the day.
The FTSE 100 index was up 0.2% at 5,910.92 points, the FTSE 250 up 0.1% at 16,096.34 and the AIM All-Share up 0.1% at 693.57. In Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.8% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.3%.
Anglo American and Antofagasta were giving back some of the gains from Thursday, when they closed up 20% and 15%, respectively. Shortly after the open Friday, Anglo American and Antofagasta were down 2.4% and 0.4%.
On Thursday, London-listed commodity stocks led gainers as metals and crude prices rose after the dollar continued to retreat on weak US economic data and expectations of slower monetary-policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.
North Sea benchmark Brent oil was quoted at USD33.94 a barrel shortly after the London equities open Friday, giving back some of the gains from Thursday. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at USD31.43 a barrel.
Gold was priced at USD1,155.00 an ounce, retaining its Thursday gains.
BG Group reported full-year results that met market expectations as a 16% fall in revenue caused a steep drop in underlying earnings.
The company, which is set to merge with Royal Dutch Shell , reported business performance earnings, which excludes special items and measures the underlying performance of the business, of USD1.69 billion in 2015 compared to USD4.03 billion a year earlier after revenue dropped 16%.
Underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 39% to USD5.63 billion from USD9.17 billion whilst underlying earnings before interest and tax fell 62% to USD2.42 billion from USD6.37 billion a year ago.
However, including special items such as disposals and impairments, BG Group managed to report Ebit of USD3.17 billion compared to a USD1.57 billion loss last year, whilst earnings from continuing operations totalled USD2.32 billion, swinging from a USD1.05 billion loss in 2014.
Shares in BG Group were up 0.2%, while Royal Dutch Shell 'B' shares were up 0.4%.
Vodafone Group was rebounding from its losses on Thursday, when it ended down 1.2% despite the telecom giant reiterated its full-year guidance as it met market expectations for its third quarter. The stock was up 1.3% Friday morning.
In the FTSE 250, food deliver company Just Eat was up 10% after it said it has acquired four takeaway businesses for a total of EUR125.0 million, in a move to beef up its position in four different countries.
The group said it bought takeaway food businesses from Rocket Internet in Spain and Italy, and from foodpanda in Brazil and Mexico, with the acquisitions to be paid for with existing cash.
Just Eat expects the acquisitions, net of one-off exceptional transaction and integration costs, to boost adjusted earnings per share for the 2016 financial year and to add GBP5.0 million to 2017 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. The company expects "material synergies and margin improvements" combined businesses grow, with improvements to EBITDA of GBP10 million per annum to follow in 2018.
Real estate investment trust Shaftesbury was up 1.3% after it said it has continued to see strong tenant demand, underpinned by robust footfall and spending, while making "good progress" with its major schemes.
The group, which owns retail, restaurant and leisure assets across London's West End, reported EPRA vacancy of 2.0% at the end of December 2015, versus 1.6% at the end of September. Available to let vacancy comprised 13,200 square feet at the same stage, made up of retail space, two restaurants, office space and five apartments.
Micro Focus International was up 0.5% at 1,347.00 pence. Wizard Parent upsized the number of shares it sold in the software company after a placing announced late Thursday was met with strong demand from investors.
Wizard, which is owned by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, Thoma Bravo and Elliott Management Corp, raised GBP357.0 million from the placing, which took place overnight and saw the sale of 28 million shares, versus the original expectation of 22 million shares, at 1,275 pence per share.
The shareholder had originally been looking to keep a stake of 17% in the company, but said on Friday the increase in the number of shares placed will leave it with a 13.8% stake in the company. Wizard came to own about 40% of Micro Focus when it sold Houston, Texas-based Attachmate to the company in September 2014.
On the macroeconomic front, investors will focus on the US nonfarm payrolls report due at 1330 GMT.
"For most of last year, all the market was able to focus on was the US jobs report to the exclusion to all else, and while today's January jobs report is also likely to be the main event, it would need to be a spectacularly good number now to shift market expectations about the slowly receding possibility of an imminent rate rise," said CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.
The analyst says January tends to be a weak month, "and this year is not expected to be any different with a number of 190,000 expected, down from the 292,000 seen in December".
However, analysts at French bank Societe Generale look for "another solid increase in job creation", expecting a rise of 245,000, and a further decline in the US unemployment rate to 4.9% from the previous 5.0%. SocGen was also more optimistic than consensus in the average hourly earnings data, with the bank seeing a rise by 0.4% month-on-month in January from a flat reading in December, while the consensus expects a lift of 0.3%.
In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong finished up 0.4%.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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