LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: Oil Stocks Gain Ground As Brent Stages Recovery

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks got off to a good start to the week as oil prices on Monday staged a recovery from last week's lows.With the price of Brent rising, oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP were higher at midday. Elsewhere on the London Stock Exchange, Faroe Petroleum and embattled airline Flybe both gained on merger & acquisition news. The FTSE 100 was up 59.26 points, or 0.9%, at 7,012.12 at midday. The FTSE 250 was up 163.06 points, or 0.9%, at 18,696.07 and the AIM All-Share up 0.5% at 928.26.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.9% at 11,901.01, the Cboe UK 250 also up 0.9% at 16,826.85, and the Cboe UK Small Companies up 0.2% at 11,408.67."A crude rebound, coupled with Brexit and Italian optimism helped boost market sentiment as we start a new week," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.Over the weekend, EU leaders gathered in Brussels and endorsed the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and the Political Declaration finally agreed with the commission last week.However, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned Britain cannot expect to get a better Brexit deal if Parliament rejects the agreement hammered out by Theresa May.The UK prime minister will now face the Commons after EU leaders endorsed the deal and made it clear it was not up for renegotiation.May will tell the Commons "with absolute certainty" that "there is not a better deal available".The prime minister, who met with her Cabinet on Monday morning, will warn rejecting her deal will "open the door to more division and uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail".May will now put it to a vote of MPs before Christmas but faces a battle to get it through the House of Commons in the face of intense opposition on both the Leave and Remain-supporting wings of her party.The pound was quoted at USD1.2853 at midday, up from USD1.2806 late Friday.Elsewhere in the UK on Monday, UK Finance showed mortgage approvals for house purchase in the UK rose in October to its highest level in five months. The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase climbed to 45,289 from 37,348 in September. The figure was the highest since June, when approvals were 47,175. A year ago, approvals were 43,706. In October, gross mortgage lending grew 5.6% year-on-year to GBP25.5 billion.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 1.0% and 1.2% respectively.Wall Street is called for a positive open in the first full day of trading for US markets since the Thanksgiving holiday. The Dow Jones is seen up 1.0%, the S&P 500 pointed 1.1% higher and the tech-heavy Nasdaq set to gain 1.6% amid the 'Cyber Monday' retail event.In London, oil-exposed stocks were a boon to the FTSE 100 on Monday."The rebound in oil prices ahead of next week's OPEC meeting and a possible production cut has helped boost oil and oilfield services providers, with John Wood Group leading the way here, though a broker upgrade from HSBC has also helped," commented CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.A barrel of Brent was quoted at USD59.95 at midday, up from USD58.78 late Friday. Oil hit a one-year low of USD58.41 on Friday as worries over a glut in global supply and a worsening economic outlook overshadowed expectations that major oil producers will agree to cut output at a meeting early next month. Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and BP were both among the gainers on Monday, with Shell 'A' shares up 1.7%, 'B' shares up 2.0%, and BP up 1.9%.John Wood was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 6.7%. HSBC raised its rating on the stock to Buy from Hold.In the FTSE 250, oilfield services firm Premier Oil was up 8.4%, the best performer in the mid-cap index.The biggest faller in the FTSE 100 was industrial turnaround specialist Melrose Industries, tumbling 5.4% after Sky News reported the firm is mulling its options after receiving some disappointing bids for recent acquisition GKN's Powder Metallurgy unit.Melrose, which took control of GKN in April after an acrimonious hostile takeover bid, has previously said it was exploring strategic options for the unit.Sky said it has learnt that Melrose executives are deciding whether to go ahead with an immediate auction of GKN Powder Metallurgy following initial bids last week valuing the unit at around GBP1.6 billion. Sky said this figure was beneath analyst forecasts that the unit would command a price tag of GBP2 billion, and has raised questions over whether Melrose could halt the sale process. Elsewhere on the London Stock Exchange, Vectura Group sank 13% after it reported the failure of its VR475 phase three study.VR475 is a device consisting of budesonide delivered by Vectura's nebuliser inhalation system and is designed to treat patients with asthma.The results from the study indicated a trend in the reduction of the rate of clinically significant exacerbations among patients receiving either 1 milligram or 0.5 milligrams doses, taken twice daily during a 52-week period. However, the results did not reach statistical significance.The open label arm study - meaning with full transparency with the patient - using a conventional nebuliser, a drug delivery device, failed to reach statistical significance against the placebo.Financially, VR475 will be fully impaired for 2018 resulting in a GBP40 million hit. In 2017, Vectura reported a pretax loss of GBP102.2 million. Vectura said the net impact on earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation of revenue is expected to be broadly neutral for 2019. Faroe Petroleum shares shot up 26% after a hostile takeover bid from major shareholder DNO.DNO - which already has a 28.23% stake in Faroe - has made a 152 pence per share cash takeover offer, valuing Faroe at GBP607.9 million. The offer price represents at 45% premium to the 105 pence share price before its initial share purchase in April and 21% higher than Faroe's 125.8 pence share price at the close on Friday.In response to the takeover bid, Faroe Petroleum said the Norwegian firm did not engage with the company before announcing its offer, and Faroe's board now will meet with its advisers to consider the DNO offer.In the meantime, Faroe urged shareholders to take no action in relation to the bid.Flybe shares gained 21%, extending Friday's 71% gain, after the Sunday Telegraph reported British Airways parent International Consolidated Airlines is in pole position to buy the troubled airline. This comes after Virgin Atlantic confirmed on Friday it is reviewing its options in respect of Flybe. These range from enhanced commercial arrangements to a possible takeover offer. Flybe and Virgin both noted that there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made.