Stock prices in London were mixed early Monday, with hopes for peace talks in Ukraine dominating sentiment, amid little significant company and economic news, while oil prices were back on the rise.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged direct talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as the only way to end the war.
‘Dialogue is the only way out,’ he said on CNN. ‘I think it’s just the two of us, me and Putin, who can make an agreement on this.’
The FTSE 100 index was up 26.08 points, or 0.4%, at 7,430.81 early Monday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 95.71 points, or 0.5%, at 21,060.91. The AIM All-Share index was up 4.89 points, or 0.4%, at 1,000.13.
The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.4% at 738.50. The Cboe 250 was down 0.2% at 18,600.53, and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.5% at 14,851.88.
In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was down 0.2% and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt was 0.1% lower.
Oil majors BP and Shell were up 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, tracking spot oil prices higher. Brent oil was trading at $112.54 a barrel Monday morning, up sharply from $107.51 a barrel late Friday.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly gearing up to slash fuel duty in his spring statement as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson pursues long-term measures to guard against future energy bill pressures. Sunak appeared on Sunday to hint at help for motorists in his so-called ‘mini-budget’, with measures to prevent filling up cars from being ‘prohibitively expensive’ expected to be unveiled on Wednesday.
Gold was trading lower early Monday, quoted at $1,924.33 an ounce, against $1,938.46 late Friday.
Antofagasta was leading the FTSE 100 index, up 3.5% as the Chilean copper miner looks set to exit its copper and mining project in Pakistan.
Canada’s Barrick Gold on Sunday said it has agreed a deal with authorities in Pakistan that will see work at the Reko Diq copper and gold mine resume. Antofagasta will exit the project and be replaced by state-owned enterprises in Pakistan.
Work at the asset was suspended back in 2011 due to a dispute about the legality of the licensing process. Antofagasta’s exit process will see the project reconstituted under Tethyan Copper Co, a joint-venture controlled by Antofagasta and Barrick. A consortium of state-owned firms in Pakistan will then acquire shares in the TCC unit that owns the project, in a $900 million deal.
At the other end of London large-caps, Hargreaves Lansdown was the worst performer, down 2.5% after Jefferies downgraded the fund supermarket to ‘underperform’ from ‘hold’.
London Stock Exchange Group was down 0.3%. The stock exchange operator has agreed a $1 billion deal to sell its BETA+ wealth technology platform to a consortium of investors, Sky News reported on Monday.
Sky News said a deal could be announced by LSEG later on Monday.
The assets are being sold to New York-based Motive Partners and California-headquartered Clearlake Capital Group. Sky News, citing a source, said the deal includes assets that were acquired as part of LSEG’s purchase of Refinitiv.
Shares in Plus500 were up 0.5% after saying it is venturing into the Japanese retail trading market through the acquisition of EZ Invest Securities for an undisclosed sum.
Haifa, Israel-based Plus500 said the acquisition represents a major growth opportunity for the company and strengthens its strategic position as a multi-asset fintech group. The purchase diversifies its geographic footprint through an immediate presence in the retail trading market in Japan, the company noted.
Analysts at Jefferies noted that Plus500 ‘still has about $300 million of surplus capital, and we expect more M&A of a similar size (eg in the Middle East), and potentially slightly larger as it seeks to increase geographical and product diversification.’
Elsewhere in London, Photo-Me International was up 6.8% after the photobooth operator said it delivered a strong performance in 2021.
For the year that ended October 31, Photo-Me posted a pretax profit of £28.6 million, swung from a £27.8 million loss in financial 2020, on revenue of £214.4 million, up from £186.3 million.
The company explained that it benefited from completion of its restructuring programme to remove unprofitable machines from its estate - mainly photobooths and children’s rides - which was completed in April 2021. As such, total revenue and pretax profit were at the upper end of the company’s own expectations.
Photo-Me declared a 2.89 pence annual dividend, having paid out nothing in financial 2020.
In Asia on Monday, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.1%, but the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 0.9%. Financial markets in Japan were closed to mark Vernal Equinox Day. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed down 0.2%.
The pound was quoted at $1.3164 early Monday, down from $1.3178 at the London equities close Friday.
The euro was priced at $1.1057, slightly lower against $1.1061. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was quoted at JP¥119.22 in London, up from JP¥119.15.
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