LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Open Higher As Aviva Sets New Course

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened broadly in the green Thursday with blue-chips led by Aviva and mid-caps by Entertainment One. The FTSE 100 index was up 34.04 points, or 0.5%, at 7,254.28 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 56.11 points, or 0.3%, at 19,128.28. The AIM All-Share index was down marginally at 939.40.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.5% at 12,305.55. The Cboe 250 was up 0.3% at 17,185.65, and the Cboe Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,711.38.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2678 early Thursday, lower than USD1.2725 at the London equities close on Wednesday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was flat while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.1% in early trading. The euro was quoted at USD1.1230 early, lower from USD1.1257 at the European equities close yesterday.Later Thursday, the European Central Bank Governing Council meets in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, announcing its latest policy decision at 1245 BST. This will be followed by a press conference with ECB President Mario Draghi at 1330 BST.Analysts expect the ECB to maintain a dovish stance, while focus for investors will likely be on details of the central bank's latest round of targeted longer-term refinancing operations, as well as the latest round of economic projections."With investors already anticipating the central bank to be dovish, we might not see too much of a reaction. In fact, the bigger risk as far as the markets are concerned is if the ECB turns out to be surprisingly less dovish than expected, although that would indeed be a big surprise given the cooling of inflation and anaemic growth in the eurozone, not to mention ongoing Brexit and trade uncertainties," said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.Added analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets: "All eyes today will be on the conclusion of the ECB's latest policy meeting. The meeting will be the first to be conducted under the ECB's new chief economist, Philip Lane, who replaced Peter Praet at the start of the month. Among other things, the meeting will be watched closely for the updated staff economic forecasts and additional details for the pricing of the forthcoming TLTRO-III liquidity operations, due to start in September."While the central bank's updated economic forecasts might well be little changed from three months ago, the Governing Council's guidance on future policy will be watched closely not least given the recent slide in market-based measures of inflation expectations close to record lows."On the London Stock Exchange, Aviva was among the early gainers in the FTSE 100, rising 1.7%, after the insurer said it will separate its UK businesses and cut 1,800 jobs over next three years as part of a plan to simplify the business, reduce costs and remove duplication. The insurer, which is hosting a investor presentation later on Thursday, intends to separate its life and general insurance businesses in the UK, with the online direct business being integrated into UK general insurance unit.Angela Darlington has been appointed interim chief executive officer of UK Life and Colm Holmes is appointed chief executive officer of general insurance. The company also intends to reduce costs by GBP300 million per annum by 2022 through lower central costs, savings in contractor and consultant spending, reduction in project expenditure and other efficiencies. The cost savings is expected to lead to 1,800 job cuts over the next three years, out of a total workforce of around 30,000. Rolls Royce and Legal & General were both higher in early trade, gaining 1.1% and 1.3%, respectively, after Rolls-Royce Holdings transferred around GBP4.1 billion of pension risk liabilities to L&G.The jet engine maker said its UK pension trustee has completed a deal to transfer pension risk liabilities to Legal & General Assurance Society Ltd, a unit of Legal & General Group. The deal covers the transfer of assets and liabilities relating to around 33,000 pensioners who are members of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund, out of a total of 76,000 members.Alongside the transfer of around GBP4.1 billion of liabilities to Legal & General, the Rolls-Royce pension trustee will also transfer around GBP4.6 billion in assets. The transaction will result in a reduction in Rolls-Royce's net assets by around GBP500 million. Rolls-Royce will continue to maintain its funding of its remaining pension plans unchanged. Legal & General has transacted over GBP6.2 billion of global pension risk transfer in the year to date versus GBP700 million in the same period a year ago.Anchoring the blue chip index were J Sainsbury, Kingfisher and Vodafone as all three stocks went ex-dividend Thursday. The supermarket was down 3.5%, the D&Y store chain down 2.8% and the mobile operator down 2.3%.Auto Trader was off 1.6% despite saying it is confident of meeting its growth expectations in its recently started financial year after reporting double-digit growth in annual profit. The automotive marketplace revealed a 15% increase in pretax profit for the year to the end of March to GBP242.2 million from GBP210.7 million the year before, including GBP8.7 million profit recognised on disposal of its Smart Buying platform.Revenue climbed 7.6% to GBP355.1 million from GBP330.1 million, with average revenue per retailer improving to GBP1,844 per month in financial 2019 from GBP1,695 the year before. Looking ahead, Chief Executive Trevor Mather said: "The new financial year has started well, and despite the continued wider market uncertainty, the board is confident of meeting its growth expectations for the year."Rising sharply to the top of the FTSE 250 index was Entertainment One, gaining 14% after announcing that President & Chief Content Officer Mark Gordon will be staying at the company, contrary to reports in media industry magazine Variety. Entertainment One said Gordon will be a part of the company "both now and into the future".Go-Ahead added 8.1% in early trade. The transport operator said it saw revenue growth across all three of its operation divisions in 2019 to date. Go-Ahead's full-year expectations for its London & International bus division have been increased due to a "strong operating performance". Go-Ahead said it seen "high levels of punctuality" across all of its divisions in the year to date. Mitchells & Butlers was up 4.1% following German investment bank Berenberg upgrading the stock to Buy from Hold.SIG was languishing at the bottom of the FTSE 250, down 2.0%. The stock went ex-dividend Thursday.Elsewhere on the London Stock Exchange, CMC Markets was down 2.6% after the company's profit in its most recently ended financial year took a hard hit from new European regulations and a reduction in overall client volumes. Pretax profit of GBP6.3 million for the year that ended on March 31, down 89% from GBP60.1 million reported a year earlier, as net operating income fell by 30% to GBP130.8 million from GBP187.1 million.The company explained that it had a "difficult" year due to the introduction of new measures by the European Securities & Markets Authority in July and August 2018, which caused many clients in the UK and Europe to stop trading or trade less.Revenue per active client was 30% lower at GBP2,068 compared to GBP2,964 a year ago, while the number of active clients declined by 10% to 53,308 from 59,165. CMC proposed a final dividend of 0.68 pence, resulting in a full year dividend of 2.03p, down 77% from 8.9p paid the year earlier. In addition, CMC confirmed that Chief Operating & Financial Officer Grant Foley will step down on Friday to pursue other opportunities. The departure was first announced in early April.At the time, CMC said it will "run a rigorous process" to find a replacement, but a successor was not yet named. Head of Finance Euan Marshall was named interim CFO.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed marginally down. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.2%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.1%.The economic events calendar on Thursday has EU first-quarter GDP at 1000 BST, with the US issuing its April trade balance and jobless claims for May at 1330 BST.