6th Jun 2016 07:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mining stocks led early gains Monday, as markets continued to ponder the impact on US interest rates of the weak US jobs figures released on Friday.
Attention is on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who is speaking to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia about the economic outlook and monetary policy at 1730 BST.
With this event being after the London close and with little in the way of significant economic data or UK company reporting, equities trading is likely to lack clear direction.
More decisively, the pound was significantly lower compared to late Friday, after the pro-Brexit vote was shown in the lead in two polls over the weekend.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 6,244.62
FTSE 250: up 0.2% at 17,099.89
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 743.47
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Hang Seng: up 0.1% at 20,973.26
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.4% at 16,580.03
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 17,807.06
S&P 500: closed down 0.3% at 2,099.13
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GBP: down at USD1.4368 (USD1.4529)
EUR: flat at USD1.1340 (USD1.1338)
GOLD: firm at USD1,241.30 per ounce (USD1,240.22)
OIL (Brent): firm at USD49.97 a barrel (USD49.51)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Monday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)
Ireland June Holiday
09:30 EU Sentix investor confidence
10:30 EU targeted LTRO
15:00 US Labor market conditions index
17:30 US Fed Chair Yellen Speech
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron will join forces with leading figures from the left to accuse members of his own Cabinet of conning the British public. The prime minister, backed by Labour's Harriet Harman, Liberal Democrat Tim Farron and the Greens' Natalie Bennett, will ramp up the pressure on the Leave camp by calling for it to spell out an economic plan for the UK if it quits the bloc. But Boris Johnson will warn Britain faces a "triple whammy of woe" that includes footing an extra GBP2.4 billion bill from Brussels if it remains part of the European Union.
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Germany's factory orders decreased unexpectedly in April on weak foreign demand, figures from Destatis revealed. Factory orders declined 2.0% in April from March, when they grew by a revised 2.6%. Economists had forecast a 0.3% rise for April. A similarly sharp decrease was last seen in July 2015. Domestic orders increased 1.3%, while foreign orders fell 4.3% on the previous month.
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At least three people were dead after a passenger train hit a freight train near the Belgian city of Liege, the Belga news agency reported. The number of victims could rise as the wreckage is searched and the injured treated, Saint-Georges-Sur-Meuse Mayor Francis Dejon told the agency. Nine people were hospitalized, and a further 27 treated briefly at the scene. The six-carriage passenger train was carrying around 40 people at 90 kilometres per hour when it hit the back of a freight train, he said.
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Swiss voters rejected the introduction of an unconditional basic income by 76.9% to 23.1% on Sunday. The world's first such vote was aimed at guaranteeing every adult a minimum monthly income of CHF2,500 Swiss. Every child would get CHF625. At the same time, it would foresee scrapping jobless, social and pension payments. Turnout for the referendum was 46.9%, in line with the per cent of eligible votes that have shown up for similar referendums in Switzerland in the past.
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Chinese president Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State John Kerry attended the opening ceremony of high-level meetings in Beijing amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea. "Differences between China and the US are quite normal...so long as the two sides tackle differences and sensitive issues in the principle of mutual respect and quality," Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying at the ceremony. High-ranking officials from the two countries are expected to discuss issues including advancing bilateral relations, improving cooperation on issues including climate change and managing areas of conflict within the two-day dialogues and consultations.
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Iraq's military on Saturday reported dislodging Islamic State forces from a suburb of Fallujah following fierce clashes with the militants. Government troops were backed by US-led airstrikes as they retook Saqalawiya, some 7 kilometres north-west of Fallujah, Colonel Mohammed Abd, an army commander in western Iraq, said. No casualties were reported among the Iraqi forces. Last month, government troops, backed by allied Shiite militiamen and a US-led air alliance, started an onslaught to retake mostly Sunni Fallujah, around 50 kilometres west of the capital Baghdad. It has been the extremist militia's western stronghold for two years now.
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The candidates in Peru's presidential run-off election were locked in a tight race with exit polls providing conflicting results shortly after voting ended on Sunday. Two surveys by separate organizations report liberal economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has a lead of up to 2.4 percentage points, while another survey puts right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori ahead by 2.2 percentage points. In the first round of voting in April, Fujimori, leader of the rightist Popular Force Party and the daughter of the country's imprisoned former president, won 40% of votes to Kuczynski's 21%.
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Banned former FIFA president Joseph Blatter has denied claims he enriched himself over the last five years at football's governing body. "Everything is clean and fair as my lawyer, Richard Cullen, has said," Blatter told dpa. His comments follow an internal investigation at FIFA which said Blatter and two other former FIFA top officials enriched themselves by more than CHF79 million in the last five years.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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JPMORGAN CUTS WOLSELEY TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 4100 (4300) PENCE
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TRADERS: RBC CAPITAL CUTS CAIRN ENERGY TO 'SECTOR PERFORM' ('OUTPERFORM')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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easyJet reported growth in the number of passengers it carried in May, but its load factor slipped year-on-year. The budget airline said it carried 6.9 million passengers in May, a 5.7% increase on the 6.5 million it carried in the same month a year earlier. Load factor, however, slipped by 0.1 percentage point to 91.5% from 91.6%. easyJet noted that there were 173 cancellations during the month as a result of air traffic control strikes in France and bad weather conditions.
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Vodafone Group said it has extended its partner market agreement with sub-Saharan Africa telecommunications provider Afrimax Group to cover Zambia. Under the agreement the two companies will offer 4G data services under the 'Vodafone Zambia' brand. Afrimax has appointed Lars Stork as chief executive officer of Vodafone Zambia, which will be headquartered in Lusaka.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Electra Private Equity said Electra Partners, its manager, has agreed to sell offshore trust and corporate services provider Elian for GBP435.0 million to Intertrust Group. Intertrust is a Dutch company that also provides offshore trust and corporate services. Electra Private Equity said it expects to get around GBP200.0 million in proceeds from the sale, a GBP41.0 million uplift on the valuation of the business at the end of March. Electra Partners led the buyout of Elian from previous owner Ogier Group in June 2014.
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PZ Cussons said it has appointed Caroline Silver as non-executive chairman, effective from January 1, 2017, following the retirement of Richard Harvey. Silver has been a non-executive director of the consumer products company since April 2014.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Swallowfield said it is buying fellow beauty and personal-care product developer The Brand Architekts Ltd for GBP11 million in cash. Swallowfield raised GBP8.6 million through a placing of shares at 155 pence each in order to fund the acquisition. The company's shares closed at 165.80p on Friday. The remaining balance will be funded by a new debt facility with HSBC Bank.
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StatPro Group said it has secured a three-year GBP2.3 million contract with an unnamed large Australian financial institution. StatPro, which provides portfolio analysis and asset-pricing services to the asset management industry, said it will supply its Revolution performance measurement platform to the customer, which will use the StatPro cloud technology to replace it existing legacy system.
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Monday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
Hansteen Holdings
Forbidden Technologies
React Group
Bagir Group
Cambian Group
REA Holdings
UK Commercial Property Trust
Global Energy Development
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]; @thomaslwaite
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