UK stocks are on the front foot this morning with the FTSE 100 index up 1.3% to 6,833 points led by mining stocks ahead of the resumption of US-China trade talks.
Evraz (EVR) adds 1.6% to 487p, Glencore (GLEN) adds 1.9% to 303p, Anglo American (AAL) adds 2.3% to £18.93 and Rio Tinto (RIO) is out front up 3% to £41.98.
Company news is thin on the ground with London Stock Exchange (LSE) the main feature after revealing plans to take a 4.9% stake in Euroclear, Europe’s largest securities settlement firm.
LSE will fund the €278.5m or £219m investment with existing cash and debt facilities and expects it to add to earnings this year. Shares are steady at £45.20.
Fashion firm Burberry (BRBY) gets a lift from French luxury giant LVMH which reported record annual sales after-hours last night driven by Asian consumers.
LVMH also reported that the strong momentum of the fourth quarter had continued into this year with January 'looking very good’ according to its chief executive.
Burberry shares add 2.9% to £18.09.
Also helping retailers is news from the British Retail Consortium that shop prices rose the most in over five years in January.
Shops increased prices by 0.4% this month, the most since April 2013, driven by food prices which rose 1.5%.
Non-food prices including household goods and clothing fell 0.3%, the smallest decline since March 2013.
Shares in gas and electricity supplier Yu Group (YU.) soar 160% to 176p after the company maintains its forecast for last year.
In its trading update for the year to December the firm says it still expects pre-tax losses to be within a range of £7.35m to £7.85m.
This assumes that the Board doesn’t decide to restate 2017 earnings, which would mean 2018 earnings also having to be restated.
Shares in Yu Group collapsed in October after the company admitted it had mis-calculated its earnings.
Industrial materials firm Low & Bonar (LWB) sees its shares drop 6% to 17p after it announces mounting losses and a placing of new shares.For the year to the end of November pre-tax losses hit £42.2m against £19.7m the previous year.
Additionally £54m of new shares are being placed at 15p, a 17% discount to last night’s closing price.
Shares in recruitment firm Staffline (STAF) drop 8% to 920p after it delays its full year earnings release scheduled for today.
The company’s press release gives no reason for the delay which seems to have unnerved investors.
