20th Jun 2016 07:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened significantly higher Monday, after the latest opinion polls ahead of the UK referendum on Thursday showed the Remain campaign in the lead.
The first opinion polls since the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox last Thursday showed a swing in favour of remaining in the European Union. A poll by Survation on behalf of The Mail on Sunday showed Remain on 45% to 42% for the Leave side, in the wake of Cox's murder.
In addition, a poll by YouGov for The Sunday Times found support for Remain rose 5 points to 44%, with the Leave campaign falling three points to 43%.
A Comres poll for The Independent which was carried out either side of the killing suggested there may have been a swing in support towards the pro-EU campaign. Of the 2,046 interviews carried out in the poll, 200 were done after the news of the attack emerged.
"Of course nobody knows whether this change in sentiment will last until Thursday. And of course the new polls are not so clear as to take the Brexit risk off the agenda. On the contrary the outcome of the referendum is wide open again. But at least Leave no longer seems the most likely scenario," wrote Ulrich Leuchtmann, analyst at Commerzbank.
The pound was making a strong rebound, trading the dollar at USD1.4597 early Monday, versus USD1.4264 at the London stock market close on Friday.
In equities, it was banks, real estate investors and housebuilders leading the gainers once again, benefiting from the swing in favour of Remain, as vote to leave the EU would be expected to hurt these sectors.
The FTSE 100 index was up 2.3%, or 138.32 points, at 6,159.41. The FTSE 250 was up 2.1% at 16,766.65 and the AIM All-Share was up 0.7% at 718.94.
In Europe, the French CAC 40 and the German DAX 30 indices were both up 2.9%.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo ended up 2.3% and the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.1%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong continues up 1.8%.
In UK corporate news, Circassia Pharmaceuticals' share price plummeted 63%, making it by far the worst performer in the FTSE 250 index. The company said it was disappointed by results from its phase III cat allergy study, as there was a "dramatic" placebo effect, and said it will now be considering the implications of the results across its allergy portfolio.
Circassia said that in its study both treatment regimens and the placebo "greatly and equally" reduced subjects' combined allergy symptom and rescue medicated use score from the baseline, meaning the score in both the active treatment groups and the placebo groups were "not significantly different".
The company said it will now review its full dataset to "understand the detailed results and assess whether any other confounding factors affected the outcome, as well as the implications for its allergy portfolio". Until then, Circassia said it will stop the recently initiated registration study of its grass allergy treatment and the preparatory work for a dose-ranging study of its ragweed allergy therapy.
Kenmare Resources said it has made significant process on its planned capital raising and production has remained on track.
Kenmare said it is confident it will be able to deliver its agreed debt restructuring and provide working capital for the business, with all lender approvals now received for its debt restructuring and underwriting of its offering.
The Mozambique-focused miner plans to raise a minimum of USD275.0 million in new equity through a cornerstone placing and a firm placing, a large volume of which will be used to cover its debt restructuring, with the rest to be used for working capital.
The stock was the best performer in the London market, up 23%.
Still ahead in the economic calendar, eurozone construction output at 1000 BST and the Deutsche Bundesbank's monthly report at 1100 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]; @NeilThakrar1
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