LONDON MARKET OPEN: Stocks Up On China Data; easyJet Warns On Demand

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Monday, with miners among the blue-chip risers following upbeat economic data from China, while easyJet fell after warning of weaker demand amid Brexit uncertainty. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 2.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 1.7%.The FTSE 100 index was up 47.67 points, or 0.7%, at 7,326.86. The FTSE 250 was up 124.68 points, or 0.7%, at 19,242.17, while the AIM All-Share index was up 0.2% at 918.63.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.5% at 12,419.58. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 17,169.64, and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,179.71.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.8% and 0.9% respectively in early trade.In the FTSE 100, WPP was the best performer, 3.0% higher after Deutsche Bank raised the advertising and marketing firm to Buy from Hold. Miners BHP, Rio Tinto, Antofagasta and Glencore were up 2.2%, 2.1%, 2.4% and 2.2% respectively following a positive manufacturing PMI reading from China.China's manufacturing activity returned to growth in March after four months of contraction, the Caixin purchasing managers' index showed.The headline seasonally adjusted PMI rose to 50.8 points in March from 49.9 in February, marking the first improvement in the health of China's manufacturing sector since November. It was also the highest reading seen since July.A figure above 50 indicates expansion in the sector."There is a lot of optimism and feelings of joy among investors today, thanks to the Chinese economic data which has painted a very optimistic picture. Perhaps, trade war pessimism has finally started to fade away," commented ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto said Cyclone Veronica will cause 2019 iron ore shipments to come in at the lower end of guidance. The cyclone has caused some damage at the Cape Lambert A port facility in Western Australia, near the Pilbara region where Rio Tinto mines iron ore.Rio Tinto has had to declare force majeure on a number of contracts as a result. A force majeure is when a company is forced to tell a partner it cannot meet contractual obligations due to forces outside of its control, such as a natural disaster.Micro Focus International was up 0.5%. The enterprise software firm said it will return a further USD1.8 billion to shareholders, on top of the USD510 million worth of shares bought back since last August.At the other end of the large cap index, easyJet was the worst performer, down 8.5% after the low-cost carrier said it expects to post a significantly widened loss for the first half of its financial year, due to higher costs, fuel and foreign exchange charges.Furthermore, easyJet warned on the outlook for the second half of the year, which is now "more cautious" due to macroeconomic uncertainty leading to softness in both the UK and Europe.For the six months ended March 31, easyJet expects to report a headline pretax loss of around GBP275 million. This compares to a headline loss of GBP18 million a year ago.Fellow carrier International Consolidated Airlines Group was down 1.6%, while Ryanair Holdings was down 3.1%. Kingfisher was down 1.3% after traders said Morgan Stanley downgraded the home improvement retailer to Equal Weight from Overweight. The pound was quoted at USD1.3060 Monday, up from USD1.3024 at the London equities close Friday. In political news, UK members of Parliament are set to take back control of the Brexit agenda in a fresh attempt to find an alternative to Prime Minister Theresa May's deal.The Commons will stage a second round of "indicative" votes on Monday on a series of rival proposals tabled by backbenchers to see if any can command a majority.The move comes as May struggles to contain the rising tensions with her Cabinet as the clock counts down to the latest EU deadline on April 12.Despite seeing her deal again defeated on Friday, the prime minister is determined to bring it back to the Commons for a fourth time - possibly as early as Tuesday - in a final roll of the dice to get it over the line.May spent the weekend trying to build support among MPs who could be won over, with aides saying she was "100% focused" on getting the result she needed.Some in Parliament believe that if MPs begin to coalesce around a "softer" Brexit in Monday's votes, it may finally convince Brexiteer hold-outs that the PM's deal now represents the "hardest" break with the EU available.In economic news, Irish manufacturing sector growth slowed marginally in March due to a small slowdown in output and new work, but AIB and IHS Markit said the result was still encouraging.The seasonally adjusted AIB Ireland purchasing managers' index reading was 53.9 in March, versus 54.0 in February. IHS Markit said the performance still demonstrates "a solid improvement in operating conditions at Irish manufacturing firms". Any figure above 50 still represents expansion.Still to come in the economic events calendar is UK manufacturing PMI at 0930 BST, following the same for the eurozone at 0900 BST. US retail sales at 1330 BST and the US manufacturing PMI is at 1445 BST.