LONDON MARKET OPEN: Imperial Brands Rises On Share Buyback Plans

(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Monday, with tobacco stocks among the blue chip risers after Imperial Brands launched a share buyback plan.The FTSE 100 was up 8.04 points, or 0.1%, at 7,561.18. The FTSE 250 was up 28.55 points, or 0.2%, at 9,683.82. The AIM All-Share was up 0.66 points at 917.48.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.1% at 12,798.06. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,556.34, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,374.61.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were flat in morning trade.In the FTSE 100, Imperial Brands was the best performer, up 1.8% after the Davidoff and Gauloises Blondes cigarette maker announced a share buyback programme, which will return up to GBP200 million to shareholders before the end of the current calendar year.Peer British American Tobacco was up 1.0%. Micro Focus International was up 1.6% ahead of the Newbury-based software firm's interim results on Tuesday. At the other end of the large cap index, Schroders was the worst performer, down 2.0% after being on the receiving end of two broker downgrades. Barclays downgraded the UK fund manager to Equal Weight from Overweight and Jefferies cut the stock to Hold from Buy.Severn Trent was down 1.3% after JPMorgan cut the water company to Underweight from Neutral.CRH was down 1.0% after Barclays cut the Irish building materials from to Equal Wright from Overweight. International Consolidated Airlines was down 0.8% after the British Airways parent said it was disappointed that UK regulators had slapped a GBP183.4 million fine on British Airways following a data breach, with the firm eyeing a potential appeal.In late 2018, IAG reported that 244,000 British Airways customers had been affected by the data breach which saw data including name, billing address, email address and card details stolen.On Monday, IAG said the UK Information Commissioner's Office had informed the airline group - which also owns Aer Lingus in Ireland and Iberia and Vueling in Spain - intends to issue British Airways with a GBP183.4 million fine. This is equivalent to 1.5% of the 2017 turnover at BA.In response, IAG Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh said: "British Airways will be making representations to the ICO in relation to the proposed fine. We intend to take all appropriate steps to defend the airline's position vigorously, including making any necessary appeals."The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.0% on Monday. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 2.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.7%.Asian equity markets were sharply lower after a strong US jobs report on Friday dented hopes that the Federal Reserve would slash interest rates at its upcoming monetary policy meeting later this month."Following last Friday's surprisingly perky non-farm jobs report, and the announcement of a US/China trade truce before that, an element of doubt has entered investors' minds regarding whether or not the Fed will actually cut rates this month, so they will be keen to see what exactly was said in the central bank's last get-together," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell. Market attention now shifts to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who will testify before US Congress regarding monetary policy on Wednesday and Thursday this week.Moreover, geopolitical concerns took hold following news on Sunday that Iran was set to breach the cap on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium agreed under a nuclear deal.The pound was quoted at USD1.2513 Monday morning, up from USD1.2496 late Friday.In political news, Boris Johnson has pledged to get the UK "match fit for no deal" to ensure it can leave the EU on October 31 "come what may".The Tory leadership frontrunner said there would be "no second chances" as he stressed that Halloween was a real deadline, "not a fake one" - a comment aimed at his rival Jeremy Hunt.Johnson's commitment to stick to the deadline comes after he was warned that more than 30 Tories could rebel to block a no-deal Brexit if he tried to force it through Parliament.Writing on the BrexitCentral website, Johnson took aim at Hunt, who referred to October 31 as a "fake deadline" - before later admitting he should have described his rival's commitment to leave on that date as a "fake promise".