LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Stocks Up As China Stimulus Plan Boosts Sentiment

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended higher on Tuesday with heavyweight mining stocks benefiting from a push by the Chinese government to support the world's second largest economy.The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.7%, or 53.26 points at 7,709.05. The FTSE 250 ended up 0.4%, or 82.49 points, at 20,852.87, and the AIM All-Share closed up 0.5%, or 5.06 points, at 1,093.69.The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.9% at 13,009.23, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.5% at 18,996.39, and the Cboe UK Small Companies closed down 0.1% at 12,389.42."Stocks [ended] the session on a positive note after the Chinese government announced plans to stimulate the economy. The update from Beijing lifted global sentiment and that has lasted throughout the day," said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets.Investor sentiment got a boost as the Chinese government unveiled plans to adopt both fiscal and financial measures to support domestic demand as worsening trade relations with its major trading partner, the US, limited the impetus to growth from exports. The State Council, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, late Monday decided to take more "proactive" fiscal steps to help the economy grow in a reasonable pace amid external uncertainties, but to avoid a strong stimulus. Proactive fiscal measures will cover deeper tax cuts, additional deductions to companies on research & development expenditure and issuing special bonds to local government to fund infrastructure projects.Additionally, Beijing said it has no intention to devalue the yuan to help exports. On the London Stock Exchange miners were among the best blue chip performers as weakness in the dollar pushed up metal prices such as gold and copper.On Monday, US President Donald Trump said the Federal Reserve's policy tightening and the strong dollar could be detrimental to the US economy - weakening the greenback in the process. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Evraz, Anglo American and Fresnillo closed up 5.7%, 4.8%, 3.9%, 4.6%, 5.5% and 1.5%, respectively. The FTSE 350 Mining sector index, which houses London's heavyweight mining companies, ended as the best performing sector, up 5.7%. Gold was firm quoted at USD1,225.70 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,224.19 late Monday."Miners powered ahead in Tuesday's session, tracing metal process higher. The unveiling of a stimulus package to lift domestic demand in China, the world's biggest consumer of metals is going some way to counter trade war jitters," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta.Conversely utility stocks ended as the worst blue chip performers as the demand for defensive stocks waned. National Grid, United Utilities, SSE and Centrica closed down 2.3%, 2.0%, 1.9% and 1.7%, respectively. In the FTSE 250, Britvic closed up 4.5% after the soft drinks maker said revenue in its third quarter increased on last year, helped by the soft drinks industry Levy, more commonly known as "sugar tax".At the other end of the midcap index, Superdry closed down 9.5% at 1,239.00 pence after the high street fashion retailer said co-founder Julian Dunkerton sold 5.5 million shares, or a 6.7% stake at 1,285p per share, raising GBP71 million.Following the sale to institutional investors, Dunkerton holds 15.1 million shares or a 18.5% stake in the company he started on a market stall in Cheltenham in 1985. In addition, Liberum cut the stock to Hold from Buy. The pound was firm quoted at USD1.3140 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.3104 at the same time on Monday. On the political front, the UK government published details of the legislation it plans to use to implement the withdrawal agreement from the European Union next March.Newly appointed Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab hailed the legislation as "another key milestone in the UK's path to leaving the EU" as he presented the plans in a white paper to the House of Commons.Raab reiterated his warning that the UK could withhold payment of its GBP39 billion "divorce bill" if the EU fails to reach agreement on its future trade relationship with the UK.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 1.0%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 1.1%. The euro stood at USD1.1686 at the European equities close, against USD1.1702 late Monday following a mixed set of economic data from the continent. Eurozone private sector activity growth lost momentum at the start of the third quarter as the improvement in Germany contrasted with a slowdown in France, flash survey results from IHS Markit revealed.The composite output index dropped to 54.3 in July from 54.9 in June. The score was expected to fall slightly to 54.8. The latest reading was the second weakest since November 2016, only narrowly beating May's recent low.Although the fall in PMI comes as something of a disappointment, the index is still consistent with a decent pace of GDP growth at the start of the third quarter, Jessica Hinds, an economist at Capital Economics, said.As such, the European Central Bank is likely to push ahead with its plans to normalize policy very gradually, Hinds added.Germany's private sector activity expanded at the fastest pace in five months in July driven by a stronger increase in manufacturing output, flash data from IHS Markit showed. The composite output index climbed to 55.2 from 54.8 in June. The score was expected to remain at 54.8. The pace of expansion was the fastest since February. The services Purchasing Managers' Index in Germany dropped slightly to 54.4 from 54.5 a month ago. The services PMI was also forecast to remain stable in July, at 54.5.Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close, with the tech sector buoyed by Google's parent company Alphabet, which reported results that beat market expectations late Monday.The DJIA was up 0.7%, the S&P 500 index up 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.5%.In US corporate news, Verizon Communications reported a profit for the second-quarter 2018 that declined 5.5% from last year. The latest-quarter earnings per share included about 21 cents due to the net effects of tax reform and accounting changes for revenue recognition.Looking ahead, Verizon expects full-year consolidated revenue growth at low-to-mid single-digit percentage rates on a GAAP reported basis. The company said in April that it expected consolidated revenues to grow at low-single-digit percentage rates on a reported basis. Harley-Davidson reported lower sales in the second quarter. The company said that its total worldwide retail motorcycle sales in the second quarter declined 3.6% to 78,428 units from last year. Motorcycle shipments also declined 11.3% to 72,593 units from last year, the company said.Notably, the iconic motorcycle maker warned that a US-EU trade war will harm put pressure on its margins. Harley Davidson was singled out by the EU as a company subject for tariffs in response to action by Trump against certain European exports to the US.Still to come in the US earnings calendar, telecommunications company AT&T and semiconductors maker Texas Instruments will report earnings after the close.Brent oil was marginally lower quoted at USD73.72 a barrel at the London equities close from USD73.87 at the close Monday.Oil prices continued trading at the USD73 mark as the threat of military conflict between the US and Iran outweighed worries over supply and global demand.On Monday, Trump warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani over the weekend that Iran would suffer the consequences, if it ever threatened the US again, after Rouhani commented that US' hostile policies would lead to "the mother of all wars."In response, Iran's Foreign Minister chimed in on Twitter warning Trump to "be cautious!"The economic events calendar on Wednesday has eurozone money supply data at 0900 BST, UK mortgage approvals figures at 0930 BST and US new home sales numbers at 1500 BST.The UK corporate calendar on Wednesday has half year results from broadcaster ITV, speciality chemicals company Croda International, events and business information group Informa and drugmaker Indivior. There are also trading statements from private equity investor 3i Group, telecommunications company Vodafone and investment manager Brewin Dolphin.