LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Open Higher, Rio Tinto And Glencore On Top

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened broadly higher early Thursday, buoyed by upward movements from heavyweight miners on bonds and buybacks.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.1%, or 5.76 points, at 7,336.88 early Thursday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.1% at 20,523.00. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.1% at 1,091.70.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.1% at 12,4434.02, the Cboe UK 250 was flat at 18,642.19, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 12,222.95.Sterling was quoted at USD1.1372 early Thursday, higher than USD1.3162 at the London equities close on Wednesday, ahead of UK retail sales data at 0930 BST."Yesterday's big jump in UK inflation in August could well be bad news for today's release of the latest retail sales numbers for the same month. Increases across the board in a number of key areas including fuel prices, clothing and other transport and recreational culture costs has the potential to take some of the heat out of consumer spending after a big jump of 0.7% in July, which was largely driven by the hot weather and World Cup," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets."Expectations are for a slowdown in retail sales for August by -0.2%, however if consumers feel more squeezed that could come in as an even bigger decline," Hewson added.EU leaders are to turn their attention to Brexit on the second day of an informal meeting in the Austrian city of Salzburg, after British Prime Minister Theresa May briefed them on her view of negotiations.Over dinner on Wednesday, May told her EU colleagues that the onus was now on Brussels to find common ground as the clock ticks down to reach a deal on Britain's departure from the bloc on March 29, 2019.May has been touting her "Chequers Plan," which she called on Wednesday "the only credible and negotiable plan on the table."EU leaders are trying to decide how much flexibility to offer May so that she has a stronger hand at home. May will not be present Thursday, when the discussions will include the EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.EU leaders will also consider whether a special summit will be needed in November. European Council President Donald Tusk warned Tuesday a no-deal Brexit was "still quite possible" and suggested an extra meeting might be necessary.In the FTSE 100, miner Rio Tinto opened at the top of the blue chip index, up 1.9% after reporting that it intends to return its coal disposal proceeds to shareholders through a USD3.2 billion share buyback programme.The programme will combine an off-market buyback tender targeting up to 41.2 million shares, of around USD1.9 billion, and on-market purchases.Details of the on-market purchases will be set out following the completion of the off-market buyback, which is expected on November 12.The disposal proceeds come from the completed sales of Hail Creek, Valeria and Kestrel, all located in Australia.Commodities trader Glencore was up 0.8% after raising USD125 million via the placing of non-dilutive zero coupon cash settled guaranteed convertible bonds due 2025.The bonds were placed by the company's subsidiary Glencore Funding LLC, and issued on the same terms - bar the issue price - as the USD500 million bonds issued in March 2018.The initial issue price of the new bonds will be 89% of their nominal value, with the final price to be determined in due course. The bonds issued in March were at an issue price of 93.25% of their nominal value.The new bonds will be fully fungible and consolidated with the bonds issued in March.Kingfisher opened at the bottom of the index, down 0.7% after closing down 6.3% on Wednesday, when the B&Q owner said difficult trading in France sent its half-year profit down by almost a third, despite "strong" performances in the UK and Polish markets.For the six months to July 31, the home improvement and garden centres retailer posted pretax profit down 30% to GBP281 million from GBP402 million a year ago. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit also fell, by 18% to GBP323 million. Meanwhile, revenue increased 1.2% to GBP6.08 billion compared to GBP6.01 billion a year prior.On the FTSE 250 index, satellite communications provider Inmarsat was the best performer, up 3.8% after announcing a strategic collaboration with Panasonic Avionics Corp to provide broadband in-flight connectivity as well as services to customers in the commercial aviation industry.Inmarsat will become Panasonic's exclusive provider of Ka-band IFC for commercial aviation, and Panasonic will be able to offer Inmarsat's broadband service GX Aviation.Weir Group was the second best performer, up 3.6% after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating for the engineering group to Overweight from Equal-Weight.Online financial trader IG Group languished at the bottom of the mid-cap index, down 8.5%, after reporting 5.0% year-on-year drop in revenue for the first quarter ended August 31 to GBP128.9 million from GBP135.2 million the year before.The revenue fall was attributed to lower volumes of trading by retail clients in the UK and EU.Elsewhere on the Main Market, luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda priced its announced certain details of its IPO, with expectations that the group will issue 56.8 million shares, in the price range of 1,750.00 pence and 2,250.00p per share, implying a market capitalisation range of GBP4.02 billion to GBP5.07 billion.Global joint coordinators for the offering are Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Securities, while the financial advisor is Lazard. Trading is expected to start on October 3.The euro was quoted at USD1.1696 early Thursday, marginally higher from USD1.1685 at the European equities close Wednesday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was down 0.1% early Thursday.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed flat. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.1%.