(Alliance News) - UK stocks were trading mostly higher on Friday at midday, as US-China trade tensions were briefly forgotten and trading on the London Stock Exchange got a late start due to a software glitch. The FTSE 100 was up 38.77, or 0.6%, at 7,105.78. London's blue-chip index is set to finish the week 2% lower. The FTSE 250 was up 62.30 points, or 0.3%, at 18,702.67. The AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 857.85.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.7% at 12,044.12. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.5% at 16,640.17. The Cboe UK Small Companies was 0.4% higher at 10,814.38."The global capital markets are ending the tumultuous week calmly, but it is far from clear that is will hold long," said Bannockburn Global Forex Chief Market Strategist Marc Chandler. "Most equity markets are higher, but the gains pare the week's losses but extend the losing streak."Chandler added: "Next Thursday's flash PMIs have potential to disappoint, and there is risk of new escalation in the US-China trade conflict as China threatens to take action to countermeasures to the new US tariffs."Flash PMI readings are due on Thursday next week from eurozone countries, Japan and the US.Meanwhile, Beijing will adopt "the necessary countermeasures" to the new tariffs, the Chinese Finance Ministry said Thursday.The US move to impose 10% tariffs on USD300 billion worth of Chinese goods violates agreements reached by the two countries' leaders at G20 summits in Argentina and Japan over the past year, China said.The new tariffs were initially set to take effect on September 1, but Washington this week decided to remove some items from the tariff list and postpone the enactment of some duties until December 1 to help Christmas shoppers in the US. A Chinese trade delegation is set to travel to Washington next month.The London Stock Exchange blamed a "technical software issue" after the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 open was delayed by more than 90 minutes on Friday morning.LSE said the opening auction was delayed until 0920 BST with large and mid-cap stocks resuming trading at 0940 BST, instead of the usual open at 0800 BST."London Stock Exchange experienced a technical software issue this morning that affected trading in certain securities, including FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 stocks. Following resolution of the issue regular trading in all securities commenced at 0940," the exchange operator said. In June last year, the LSE also suffered a "technical software issue" that resulted in the opening auction being delayed for an hour.Despite the technical trouble, the LSE's own shares were 1.2% higher at midday on Friday. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both up 1.0%.The eurozone recorded a better-than-expected surplus in June, Eurostat showed.The euro area trade surplus came in at EUR20.6 billion in June, lower than the EUR22.6 billion registered a year ago but above market consensus, as cited by FXStreet, of EUR16.3 billion. Exports in June amounted to EUR189.9 billion, down 4.7% year-on-year, while imports fell 4.1% to EUR169.3 billion. Wall Street is on track for a higher open. The Dow Jones is pointed up 0.9%, the S&P 500 up 1.0% and the Nasdaq 1.3% higher. Back in the FTSE 100, Royal Bank of Scotland was among the top performers, up 1.9% at midday. The lender rebounded from Thursday's 10% loss. The stock was trading ex-dividend that day and also was hit by broker downgrades. HSBC analysts cut RBS to Hold from Buy as the potential of the UK leaving the EU without a trade agreement becomes a "material" likelihood. Macquarie also cut the stock to Neutral from Outperform. Analysts at the two banks said the recent second-quarter earnings season highlighted the challenging conditions faced by domestic UK lenders, with RBS the most exposed. Swiss bank UBS cut its price target on RBS but retained a Buy rating. Hiscox shares were up 1.7%, boosted by an upgrade from Morgan Stanley, which lifted the Bermuda-based insurer to Overweight from Equal-Weight.Standard Life Aberdeen shares were trading 1.6% higher after it asked US bank Citigroup to conduct the remaining GBP200 million in the company's GBP750 million buyback programme. Citi will begin purchasing shares Friday and will have until January 16, 2020 to complete the programme.At the investment manager's 2018 annual general meeting, shareholders approved a GBP1.75 billion total buyback programme. This consisted of GBP1.00 billion returned through a B share consolidation scheme agreement - which was completed last October - and the return of up to GBP750 million through an ordinary share purchase agreement. Standard Life Aberdeen has already purchased GBP550 million of shares through the agreement, with the final GBP200 million now expected to be bought by January. The company said the purpose of the programme is to reduce its share capital.In the FTSE 250, Hunting was up 2.7% following the acquisition of offshore riser maker RTI Energy Systems for USD12.5 million in cash from Arconic.The oil & gas industry services provider said it will fund the acquisition for its existing cash resources. In 2018, Hunting generated USD74.7 million in pretax profit on revenue of USD911.4 million.The product portfolio at RTI - which is protected by a number of patents - was described as "unique" by Hunting, being the only industry supplier of the more reliable titanium stress joints. The acquired firm also provides the fabrication and machining of other components used in the hydrocarbons industry as well as maintenance services.In 2018, RTI generated an unspecified operating loss on revenue of USD7.1 million.At the other end of the mid-cap index was Acacia Mining, down 2.6%. It said it cannot resume gold production at the North Mara mine until the Tanzanian environment council reverses a prohibition notice.The Tanzanian government in July prohibited Acacia from using the tailings storage facility at North Mara because of the "failure to contain and prevent seepage", halting gold production altogether.Acacia has been under pressure since Tanzania in 2017 banned all exports of the metal concentrate in an effort to keep processing activities in the country.Acacia has, however, begun to receive permits from Tanzanian regulators which would permit it to export gold. Sales of this gold should allow the miner to meet "its financial obligations for an extended period of time".London Midday is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com
Hunting (HTG)
Hiscox (HSX)