London open: Blue chips very flat

Trading so far seems even quieter than yesterday, with very little news to get the attention of either buyers or sellers.BP is off the pace after it faced more US litigation with an investor lawsuit claiming the oil giant repeatedly lied about its safety record over the past five years.Miners are mixed. Silver miner Fresnillo is again on the rise, but yesterday's two big risers Randgold and African Barrick have both run into profit taking.Simon Property is edging closer to launching a full-scale takeover bid for Capital Shopping Centres, the owner of 14 UK shopping centres, after it agreed a £3bn loan from a consortium of banks yesterday. Uranium miner Berkeley Resources', exclusivity agreement with Russian mining giant Severstal has ended after the two failed to agree takeover terms. The announcement has raised fears that the deal may not now go ahead although Berkeley said it was still in talks with Severstal.TUI Travel is lower after it parted company with auditor KPMG yesterday after the relationship broke down following the discovery of £117m worth of irrecoverable balances after the integration of the tour operator's IT systems.PricewaterhouseCoopers is replacing KPMG as group auditor.