LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: Shares Hold Onto Gains As May Faces Down Critics

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were holding onto opening gains at midday on Monday, after UK Prime Minister Theresa May emerged unscathed from the weekend, following the string of ministerial resignations over her Brexit deal late last week.The FTSE 100 was up 0.4%, or 27.83 points, at 7,041.71. The FTSE 250 was up 0.6%, or 101.97 points, at 18,691.06. The AIM All-Share was down 0.3% at 955.60.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 11,948.41, while the Cboe UK 250 was 0.4% higher at 16,808.53. The Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,474.18.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was up 0.2% but the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.1%."The FTSE 100 is moving cautiously higher this morning, as further signs of a breakdown in relations between the US and China failed to fully dampen early trade in Europe. On a day devoid of any major economic releases, Brexit is sure to remain a critical issue for UK markets, with the country in limbo until we see some form of breakthrough on the withdrawal agreement," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.The 27 EU member states remaining after Brexit have given their support to the divorce deal negotiated by Brussels and London, said EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. "I am pleased that ministers today support the overall package; in particular member states support the draft withdrawal agreement," Barnier said following a meeting in Brussels of EU ministers for European affairs. He noted that British and EU negotiators are now continuing their work to finalize a joint political declaration outlining the future relationship.Among the EU ministers meeting on Monday, several stressed that the text was not up for renegotiation. May will join Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in addressing the CBI annual conference in London later on Monday. The prime minister's speech is due to address those - thought to include up to five serving ministers - who think changes can be made to her deal before the November 25 EU summit.The pound was quoted at USD1.2845 on Monday midday, marginally firm from USD1.2839 late Friday.The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Papua New Guinea concluded without a joint communique because of trade disagreements, especially between the US and China, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said on Sunday.The inability to agree on the final communique was due to "the two big giants in the room", O'Neill said, referring to the US and China - the two countries that have dominated the APEC summit agenda with their trade dispute and scathing war of words. O'Neill said the countries could not agree on reforms to the World Trade Organization.After posting gains on Friday, stocks in the US are pointed lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones seen down 0.2%, the S&P 500 down 0.2% and the Nasdaq down 0.2%. Wall Street will have a shortened trading week, with markets closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday and open for just a half-day on Friday. In London, budget airline easyJet was up 1.6% ahead of its annual results, due on Tuesday.BHP Billiton was up 1.0% after the Anglo-Australian miner said it has ended a long-running dispute with the Australian taxman.The agreement with the Australian Tax Office covers a disagreement stretching back to 2003. It will see BHP make no admittance of any tax avoidance but pay AUD529 million to the ATO. Of this, the miner has already paid AUD328 million.In addition, from July next year, BHP will increase its ownership of Singapore marketing business BHP Billiton Marketing AG to 100% from 58%, meaning all profit in Singapore related to Australian assets will be taxable in Australia.In the FTSE 250, Diploma was up 5.3% after reporting a 9% rise in pretax profit to GBP72.7 million in the year to the end of September from GBP66.8 million a year ago. This was on the back of revenue that increased 7% to GBP485.1 million from GBP451.9 million. Diploma hiked its final dividend by 11% to 17.8 pence from 16.0p paid to shareholders a year before. This will result in a total payout of 25.5p, also up 11%, from 23.0p. Intermediate Capital was up 3.5%, as Shore Capital raised the asset manager's rating to Hold from Buy. London Metric Property was 1.5% higher after selling its retail park in Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, for GBP22.0 million to an unnamed "long-term investor". The property developer said that the price is a premium to the March book value and represents a net initial yield of 5.2%. LondonMetric acquired the 48,000 square feet retail park in 2013 for GBP10.4 million. Elsewhere on the London Stock Exchange, lender S&U was up 5.5% after confirming its expansion into property lending, by pledging its support for the development of its subsidiary, Aspen Bridging. S&U anticipates increasing its total investment in Aspen to GBP30 million in 2019, and will consider further investments depending on the requirements and performance of Aspen after that. Aspen was created in 2017 and since then has built a loan book of GBP20 million. The loan book is secured on property across England and Wales, with average loan size of GBP380,000 over terms of up to 12 months for customers who are generally smaller refurbishers and developers.Mitie Group, was up 1.5% as it agreed to sell its social housing business to Mears Group for up to GBP35 million in cash. The initial payment for the sale is GBP22.5 million in cash. The deal also involves an additional GBP12.5 million payment over a period of two years, subject to the achievement of performance milestones. Mitie said it will use the majority of the proceeds from the sale to strengthen its balance sheet and accelerate a partial repayment of the deficit of the firm's defined-benefit pension scheme. In the red, Mears Group was 8.5% lower, as it intends to raise GBP22.5 million via a share placing to cover the initial sum payable under the Mitie deal.Mears will issue 6.8 million shares at a price of 331.5 pence each in the placing, which will be conducted by way of accelerated bookbuild.