LONDON MARKET OPEN: Pound Rises As PM May Seeks To Delay Brexit

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London were lower on Tuesday as UK Prime Minister Theresa May headed for top-level Brexit talks in Berlin and Paris.The FTSE 100 was down 13.39 points, or 0.2%, at 7,438.50. The FTSE 250 was down 18.19 points, or 0.1%, at 19,499.02. The AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 924.14.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.1% at 12,623.11. The Cboe UK 250 was flat at 17,416.94, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 11,247.36.The pound meanwhile was quoted at USD1.3084 Tuesday, up from USD1.3040 at the London equities close Monday.May is set to meet her counterparts in Berlin and Paris on Tuesday before she is due to ask for another delay to the Brexit process at an emergency EU summit on Wednesday.May will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and President Emmanuel Macron in Paris as she seeks to avoid a no-deal Brexit on Friday, when Britain is currently scheduled to exit the European Union.The prime minister has said she will ask for an extension until June 30 at Wednesday's summit of EU leaders but Brussels has already indicated it expects her to have a concrete plan in place if more time is to be granted."MPs will vote on the duration of the Article 50 extension that May should be willing to accept on Wednesday, with her requested delay to June 30 likely to be judged too short. Of course, it will be up to the EU leaders tomorrow to agree the precise length of the extension as well as conditions to ensure that the extra time is not wasted and also to bind the UK to its legal obligation to maintain 'sincere cooperation' with the EU for as long as it remains a member," analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets noted.In the FTSE 100, Anglo American was up 0.5% after the miner said its De Beers rough diamond sales in the third sales cycle of 2019 were about 10% higher than the year prior amid "stable" demand.Its third cycle sales in 2019 - as of Tuesday - stood at a provisional USD575 million. This was 9.7% higher than the USD524 million sales reported in the third cycle of 2018 and 16% up on the USD496 million sales reported for the second cycle of 2019.At the other end of the large cap index, Severn Trent was the worst performer, down 2.2% after JPMorgan downgraded the water company to Neutral from Overweight. In the FTSE 250, Brewin Dolphin was up 2.2% after the wealth manager signed a contract to replace its current core custody and settlement system.Brewin, which had already said it planned to change system, has signed a 10-year deal with Avaloq UK. The contract is part of an overall programme costing around GBP35 million, to be amortised over 10 years. At the other end of the midcaps, Hays was the worst performer, down 3.0% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the recruiter to Equal Weight from Overweight.Pennon Group was down 2.0% after JPMorgan cut the utility stock to Neutral from Overweight. Meanwhile, shares in struggling department store chain Debenhams shares were suspended from trading as it rejected a revised rescue offer from shareholder Sports Direct.The new offer from Sports Direct would have seen the sportswear retailer underwrite a GBP200 million share issue by Debenhams. On Monday, Debenhams rebuffed a similar proposal from Mike Ashley's company to pump GBP150 million into the embattled retailer.Sports Direct shares were up 0.2%.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.1% and 0.2% respectively in early dealings.The US is set to propose a list of EU products that will face additional tariffs to counterbalance subsidies for European aircraft following a recent World Trade Organization ruling.The 15-year saga between the US and the EU over their main aircraft makers, Boeing and Airbus respectively, ended last month at the WTO, when the global trade body ruled that the US failed to stop some subsidies for Boeing.The WTO previously declared European subsidies for Boeing's European rival Airbus illegal. In May 2018, it also found that the EU had failed to scrap its support for Airbus.Final issues about the value of damage are still in arbitration.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.3%.Still to come in the economic calendar is Italy retail sales at 0900 BST and US JOLTS job openings at 1500 BST.