11th Nov 2015 08:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - London shares opened higher Wednesday, with Experian and J Sainsbury leading the blue-chip gainers, while mining stocks were down after weak industrial production data from China.
The FTSE 100 index opened up 0.4% at 6,300.94 points, the FTSE 250 was up 0.7% at 17,154.53 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 744.40. In Europe, the French CAC 40 was up 0.4% and the German DAX 30 was up 0.5%.
Information services company Experian was the biggest gainer at the open, up 2.1% at 1,225.00 pence, after Citigroup upgraded the company's price target by 9% to 1,340p. The stock is adding to the gains seen on Tuesday, when it closed up 7.2% having said that it expects to see organic revenue growth at constant currency in the full year.
Shares in Sainsbury's also were in favour, up 1.6%. The company said the grocery market in the UK remains challenging and posted lower sales for the first half, even as it swung to a pretax profit in the period.
The FTSE 100-listed grocer said its pretax profit for the 28 weeks to September 26 was GBP339.0 million, swung from a GBP290.0 million loss made a year earlier due to writedowns it had booked. Underlying pretax profit for the group fell 18% in the recent half to GBP308.0 million from GBP375.0 million a year before.
Total group sales, excluding VAT and fuel, fell 2.0% to GBP12.42 billion from GBP12.67 billion a year earlier, it said. Underlying sales, including VAT, fell 2.0% to GBP13.64 billion from GBP13.92 billion. Sainsbury's will pay an interim dividend of 4.0 pence per share, down 20% from 5.0p a year earlier
Meanwhile, SABMiller was up 1.4%, after it confirmed it has struck a deal to be acquired by bigger rival Anheuser-Busch InBev for around GBP70.0 billion, consolidating the latter's position as the world's biggest brewer by some distance.
Anglo-South African SABMiller also said it has struck a deal to sell its stake in the MillerCoors joint venture in the US to Molson Coors, its partner in the company.
It is selling the stake to help pave the way for regulatory approval to be given for the takeover, though further remedies are likely to have to be offered as the combined group will control about a third of global beer volumes.
Schroders was the biggest blue-chip faller, down 0.9%, after being downgraded by Barclays to Equal Weight from Overweight.
Shares in London-listed miners were lower. BHP Billiton was down 2.3%, Anglo American down 1.0% and Centamin down 0.9%.
China's industrial production growth slowed unexpectedly in October to 5.6% on a yearly basis in October after increasing 5.7% in September, but missing economists forecasts for a 5.8% rise.
At the same time, data from National Bureau of Statistics showed Wednesday that annual growth in retail sales edged up to 11.0% in October from 10.9% in September. This was the fastest growth seen so far this year. Sales were expected to climb 10.9% again in October.
The Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong ended down 0.2%. Meanwhile, the Japanese Nikkei 225 finished up 0.1%.
In the FTSE 250, interdealer brokers Tullett Prebon and ICAP confirmed an agreement for Tullett to buy ICAP's voice broking and information business in a deal which will see ICAP and its shareholders own a majority of Tullett.
Under the terms of the offer, Tullett will issue shares to ICAP shareholders and to ICAP in consideration for the acquisition. The new shares will represent a 56% stake in Tullett's enlarged share capital and ICAP shareholders will own 36% of the company, while ICAP itself will own 20%.
ICAP shares were up 4.6% on the news, first revealed last week, while Tullett shares were down 3.5%.
In the UK economic calendar, ILO unemployment rate and average earnings data are expected at 0930 GMT.
Lloyds Bank says the latest UK labour market report will provide some reassurance that underlying trends remain solid, after employment in the three months to August rose by 140,000 which, alongside a 79,000 drop in unemployment, combined to nudge the jobless rate lower to 5.4% from 5.5%.
"The latest surveys of hiring intentions point to further job gains and we have pencilled in a rise of 120,000 in the three months to September," says Lloyds. "While a further decline in the number unemployed is expected, we forecast the jobless rate to remain at 5.4% for now."
Before that, at 0900 GMT, the Bank of England hosts the Open Forum 2015, looking at the future direction for financial regulation, with ECB President Mario Draghi expected to speak at 1315 GMT.
The US earnings season continues, with a third-quarter update from department stores company Macy's before the US market open. After the US bell is expected an update from Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Shell Midstream Partners, which was created by the London-listed oil giant in 2014 as a limited partnership vehicle to own, operate, develop and acquire pipeline and other midstream assets.
Wall Street ended mixed on Tuesday. The DJIA and the S&P 500 ended up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite finished down 0.2%. US bond markets will be closed Wednesday for Veterans Day, but the stock market will remain open.
By Daniel Ruiz; [email protected]
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