2nd Jan 2019 08:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London started the first trading day of 2019 in the red, as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data weighed on the market's big miners.
Ophir Energy was up more than a third after receiving a takeover approach from Indonesia.The FTSE 100 was down 124.16 points, or 1.8%, at 6,603.97 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 221.40 points, or 1.3%, to 17,280.65, and the AIM All-Share was down 3.30 points, or 0.4%, at 855.47.The Cboe UK 100 was down 1.7% at 11,211.66. The Cboe UK 250 was 1.2% lower at 15,487.64, but the Cboe UK Small Companies was 0.5% higher at 10,859.28.In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed down 2.9%. Markets in Japan will remain closed until Friday.The Chinese manufacturing sector contracted for the first time in 19 months in December amid weakening market demand, a report showed on Wednesday.The Caixin Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 49.7 points in December from 50.2 in November. Economists had expected it to weaken to 50.1 points, but the fall below the 50 point mark which separates contraction from expansion was worse than forecast.The print was the lowest since May 2017, when the index stood at 49.6 points.Total new orders fell in December. This was the first time this had occurred since June 2016 after respondents reported "relatively subdued" market conditions had crimped sales.In the FTSE 100, miners started in the red in reaction to the weak Chinese data. Antofagasta was down 4.9%, Anglo American 3.6%, Glencore down 3.5%, and Rio Tinto 3.1% lower. In the FTSE 250, Energean Oil & Gas stood at the top of the midcap index, up 7.2% after signing a gas sales and purchase agreement with IPM Beer Tuvia to supply 5.5 billion cubic metres of gas from its Karish and Tanin operations, offshore Israel for 19 years.The agreement is expected to start in 2024, and will add between 265 million to 38 million cubic metres per year in gas sales, contributing USD900 million over the life of the contract.Losing ground early Wednesday, property development company Hammerson was down 2.5% after pausing its GBP300 million share buyback programme first announced in July 2018, as it entered the closed period of its financial year.Hammerson had targeted to achieve these buybacks by July 2019. So far. it had acquired GBP129 million - or 43% - of this target. The London- and Johannesburg-listed shopping centre owner and operator confirmed it expects 2018 results to be "in line with market expectations".Gambling software company Playtech was down 1.0% after reaching an agreement with Israeli tax authorities to pay an additional EUR28 million following an audit.The civil tax audit covers the gambling software maker's 2008 to 2017 financial years, and relates to Playtech's activities in Israel during that period. No penalties have been imposed upon Playtech as a result of the audit, which covers all of Playtech's activities in Israel.Elsewhere on the Main Market, oil and gas company Ophir Energy rose 36% following confirmation of a takeover offer made by Jakarta-listed energy company PT Medco Energi Internasional.Ophir said that it and Medco Energi were in discussions about a cash offer and that Medco has until January 28 to make a firm offer.Ophir holds a 45% participating interest in the Sampang production sharing contract in Indonesia. Early in December, Ophir said gas had been discovered by the Paus Biru-1 exploration well at Sampang.Randgold Resources is delisted from London effective Wednesday, following its acquisition by Canada's Barrick Gold. Motor market place Auto Trader is promoted to the FTSE 100 index from the FTSE 250 in Randgold's place, while Sabre Insurance, a motor insurer, replaces Auto Trader in the FTSE 250. Auto Trader shares were down 1.5% early Wednesday, while Sabre was down 1.1%. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 2.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 1.5%, early Wednesday. The pound was quoted at USD1.2705 early Wednesday, lower compared to USD1.2782 at the close on Monday. The euro was stood at USD1.1437 Wednesday morning, against USD1.1446.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended broadly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.2%, S&P 500 up 0.9% and Nasdaq Composite closing flat.President Donald Trump on Tuesday hinted that he was ready to negotiate an end to a partial US government shutdown amid reports that he has invited congressional leaders to the White House for talks."Border Security and the Wall 'thing' and Shutdown is not where Nancy Pelosi wanted to start her tenure as Speaker! Let's make a deal?" Trump said.In the economic calendar on Wednesday, manufacturing PMI are still to come from Germany at 0855 GMT, the eurozone at 0900 GMT, the UK at 0930 GMT and the US at 1445 GMT.