London open: Miners pace the advance as May faces Commons backlash
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Thursday 15 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - London stocks rose in early trade on Thursday, underpinned by solid gains in the mining sector as investors tried to take stock of the latest Brexit developments amid ministerial resignations.
At 0830 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.5% to 7,065.72.
Sterling initially was slightly higher after Theresa May announced overnight that her cabinet had signed off on her Brexit deal. However, the currency tumbled on Thursday morning, trading down 0.8% against the dollar at 1.2892 and 0.9% lower versus the euro at 1.1385 as two ministers resigned and a swirl of reports that Brexiters were plotting to force a vote of no confidence.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and junior Northern Ireland Office minister Shailesh Vara both announced they were resigning over the deal. Raab said that he "cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU" as he tweeted his letter of resignation to the PM.
With May's Brexit deal still to be approved by parliament, Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM, said the pound would have traded much higher if market participants believed a Brexit deal was secured. "The parliamentary vote will prove to be much more challenging in the weeks ahead, and the risk of UK exiting the EU without a deal remains high," he said.
"Eurosceptic Tories are against the UK being restricted and want to strike trade agreements with the rest of the world, but under the current draft agreement there will be a transition phase that will prevent them from doing so. That's why markets feel getting the draft agreement approved through parliament is a hard task. There's also a more significant risk if the conservatives demand a vote of no confidence in May. Such a scenario will likely lead to a general election, putting the UK in a much worse position. Traders should expect sterling to fluctuate in wide ranges over the next couple of weeks until we get more clarity on Brexit and Theresa May's fate."
Having been signed off by the cabinet, the deal will now have to go to a special EU summit on 25 November, before being put before the House of Commons in early December.
On the stock market, miners were the standout gainers as copper prices advanced, with Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Glencore, Rio and Anglo all higher.
Antofagasta was also boosted by news that it has approved a $1.3bn expansion of its Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile. The expansion will produce additional ore equal to an extra 60,000 tonnes a year of refined copper over the first 15 years of the expansion project, lifting the mine's output for the first time in over a decade.
Elsewhere, Royal Mail was on the front foot as it reported revenue up 1% but a 25% decline in operating profits for the first half of the year. Chief executive Rico Back said a range of actions had been put in place to improve performance and confirmed the board's commitment to cut £100m of costs and generate adjusted group operating profit before transformation costs of £500-550m for the financial year.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said the small pop in the opening share price does little to repair the recent damage. "In May of this year Royal Mail shares stood 45% higher than today, which has likely cemented the group's relegation from the premier index at the next reshuffle in December. Over the last year, the picture is slightly better, with the shares having dropped 9%, as compared to a 4.6% dip for the wider FTSE100.
"However, quite apart from the increasing competitive pressures from the likes of Deutsche Post and Amazon, Royal Mail has a long road ahead to recapture any former glory, and the market consensus of the shares as a sell seems likely to remain entrenched for the time being."
3i Group was just a touch firmer as it said first-half net asset value rose to 776p from 724p at the end of March, with a total return on shareholder funds of 10% while Intermediate Capital Group racked up strong gains as it said first-half pre-tax profit rose 122% to £179.5m.
On the downside, Cineworld slumped despite reporting an 11.6% jump in revenue for the period from 1 January to 11 November, while Bovis Homes fell as the housebuilder said in an update that uncertainty about Brexit had put off discretionary homebuyers.
Aggreko and CRH were both weaker following downgrades from Barclays and Exane, respectively.
Bunzl, GlaxoSmithKline, Sainsbury, Marks & spencer, Royal Dutch Shell, Dunelm, Genus, Sophos and Spire Healthcare were among the companies whose stock went ex-dividend.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,065.72 0.45%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,976.34 0.35%
techMARK (TASX) 3,396.63 0.27%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,180.00p 2.83%
Evraz (EVR) 533.00p 2.54%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 778.80p 2.23%
Glencore (GLEN) 297.65p 2.07%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,576.00p 2.01%
Fresnillo (FRES) 832.90p 1.85%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,670.10p 1.77%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,775.65p 1.77%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,408.00p 1.73%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 476.98p 1.31%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Melrose Industries (MRO) 178.75p -1.49%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 300.00p -1.35%
CRH (CRH) 2,224.00p -0.89%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,342.00p -0.70%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,390.00p -0.69%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 7,026.26p -0.62%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 351.00p -0.57%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,543.60p -0.52%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 817.00p -0.49%
DCC (DCC) 6,040.00p -0.41%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 985.50p 6.66%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 106.02p 2.93%
Cobham (COB) 101.50p 2.71%
Polymetal International (POLY) 750.60p 2.54%
888 Holdings (888) 178.50p 2.41%
AA (AA.) 99.98p 1.98%
Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT) 1,155.27p 1.88%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 210.80p 1.79%
Baillie Gifford Japan Trust (BGFD) 773.36p 1.76%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 275.20p 1.70%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Cineworld Group (CINE) 280.20p -5.59%
Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 260.05p -4.73%
Capita (CPI) 121.92p -3.05%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 1,024.00p -1.59%
Aggreko (AGK) 762.60p -1.40%
Ascential (ASCL) 388.15p -1.38%
IntegraFin Holding (IHP) 286.95p -1.05%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 282.30p -1.05%
Intu Properties (INTU) 193.41p -0.92%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 597.00p -0.76%
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