1st Feb 2021 08:41
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Monday with precious metals miners leading the FTSE 100 as the price of silver surged.
The FTSE 100 index was up 46.08 points, or 0.7%, at 6,453.54. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 98.42 points, or 0.5%, at 20,327.00. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.4% at 1,164.92.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.7% at 641.35. The Cboe 250 was up 0.2% at 17,836.31 and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.1% at 12,109.54.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.1% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 1.0%.
In the FTSE 100, gold and silver miner Fresnillo was the standout performer, up 18%, while peer Polymetal International was up 6.5%, benefitting from a rise in silver prices as retail investors cast their eye over the precious metals space. In the FTSE 250, Hochschild Mining was up 12%.
Spot silver was priced at USD29.81 an ounce in London early Monday, up from USD27.04 an ounce late Friday and USD25.38 on Wednesday. The precious metal was trading at five-months highs as users on Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets intensified calls for a short-squeeze on the commodity. #silversqueeze is currently trending on social media platform Twitter.
"In the commodity space, we see a lot of bullish action for silver. The metal jumped over 7% as Reddit traders are after the short squeeze play here as well. Last week, we saw traders going after the most shorted stocks on Wall Street, such as GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and several other stocks. Now, we see that these traders have also shifted their focus on the metals markets as well. This pushed the silver futures up over 8% last night when markets opened after a weekend break. This move was the largest move for silver since 2013," said AvaTrade analyst Naeem Aslam.
JD Sports Fashion was up 6.5% after the sportswear retailer said it has agreed to buy Baltimore, Maryland-based footwear and apparel streetwear retailer DTLR Villa for USD495 million. This cash purchase price is being funded from cash resources and existing bank facilities.
Hargreaves Lansdown was up 1.5% after the fund supermarket reported a rise in interim earnings and lifted its dividend.
For the half year ended December 31, net new business rose 40% to GBP3.2 billion from GBP2.31 billion at the same time in 2019. Pretax profit was up 10% to GBP188.4 million from GBP171.1 million. Total assets under administration as at December 31 was GBP120.6 million, up 15% from GBP105.2 billion at the same time in 2019.
The wealth manager said it added 1.5 million active clients, which was an increase of 84,000 since June 30. Hargreaves declared an interim dividend of 11.9 pence per share, up 6% from 11.2p.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed up 2.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.8%.
Manufacturing activity in China slowed at the start of 2021, with slower increases in output and new orders and with stock shortages and shipping delays hindering supplier performance, data from Caixin and IHS Markit showed.
The Caixin China headline seasonally adjusted purchasing managers' index decreased to 51.5 in January from 53.0 in December, but remained above the neutral mark of 50, reflecting continued growth.
Official data also showed factory activity in China slowed slightly in January, as the country rushed to stamp out a recent coronavirus wave in northern China.
The PMI index, a key gauge of manufacturing activity, came in at 51.3 points, as the world's second-largest economy tightened Covid-19 precautions ahead of the Lunar New Year. The figure was slightly below December's reading of 51.9, although still above the 50-point mark separating growth from contraction.
China's non-manufacturing PMI saw a larger drop to 52.4 points, from 55.7 last month, taking a bigger hit from the domestic virus resurgence.
The pound was quoted at USD1.3740 early Monday, up from USD1.3712 at the London equities close Friday.
The euro was priced at USD1.2131, marginally lower from USD1.2135. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY104.70, soft from JPY104.75.
Brent oil was quoted at USD55.35 a barrel Monday morning, down from USD56.00 at the London equities close Friday. Gold was trading at USD1,862.51 an ounce, up from USD1,857.20.
The economic events calendar on Monday has manufacturing PMI readings from Germany, the eurozone and the UK at 0855 GMT, 0900 GMT and 0930 GMT respectively.
By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]
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