London midday: Miners lead FTSE 250 to fresh record high
Miners were still pacing gains come midday on Monday with copper prices holding higher on worries that a strike at the world's largest copper mine might last longer than had been expected, while the FTSE 250 notched up a fresh record high.
As of 12:05 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was higher by 9.34 points or 0.13% at 7,268.09.
Dragging on the Footsie was the pound's 0.38% advance to 1.2534 as the European Commission revised its estimate for Britain's economic growth in 2017 up from 1% to 1.5%, though this is still a fall from the 2% in 2016. Growth is seen slowing to 1.2% in 2018.
Nonetheless, the news was welcomed by investors in the more UK-focused mid-cap index as it continued its February rally, rising 0.26% to 18,763.12 and trading around new record highs.
Resources companies were leading the charge, as copper prices were boosted by protesters entering the premises of BHP Billiton's Escondida copper mine - the world's largest - in Chile, forcing some contract workers to leave.
Events at Escondida came as exports were halted from the second-largest mine in the world at Grasberg, Indonesia.
Combined, the news sent the Stoxx 600's sub-index of Basic Resource shares higher by 1.81% to 449.43 as March 2017 copper futures on COMEX shot up 0.72% to $2.7880 a pound.
This saw shares in BHP advance 1.42%, alongside gains of 1.74% for Rio Tinto and of 1.81% in Anglo American's stock.
In the background, investor sentiment was also bolstered by positive news from US president Donald Trump's meeting with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe over the weekend and after he reaffirmed Washington's 'One China' policy in a telephone call with China's leader.
Regarding Trump's stance towards China and Taiwan, investors had been especially worried that America would renege on its long-standing policy commitment of support to Chinese reunification, a lynch-pin of its regional security strategy in Asia Pacific.
On a more sombre note, his meeting with Abe came against the backdrop of an unexpected intermediate range ballistic missile test by the regime in Pyongang, North Korea, which served to underline the policy challenges faced by the new US administration.
RBS gains despite talk of further job losses
Royal Bank of Scotland shares jumped on Monday morning on the back of weekend reports that it plans to axe around 15,000 jobs. While it has denied these claims, RBS is still expected to announce a significant new round of cost cutting alongside a ninth consecutive annual loss next week. The state owned bank is forecast to be looking at a loss of around £2.3bn when it reports a week on Friday.
Reports indicated that insurer Old Mutual had received new approaches for its $900m controlling stake in its US asset management arm.
Fidessa was on the FTSE 250 leaderboard as it declared both a final and a special dividend as the increased headwinds in its markets during the second half of the year have already begun to reduce. For the calendar year, the financial software group generated £331.9m revenue, up 12% on a reported basis, or 3% when the benefit of sterling weakness is excluded, with profit before tax up 25% to £48.8m.
Capita and the Co-operative Bank have resolved their differences over claims that the outsourcing firm withheld payments from the bank due to delays as it helped administer mortgages for Capita’s clients.FTSE 100 Capita said on Monday that its Western Mortgage Services business will continue to provide mortgage administration services and process new mortgage applications for the Co-operative Bank, while work on the transforming the IT system will cease.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,264.67 0.08%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,773.60 0.31%
techMARK (TASX) 3,351.77 0.18%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Glencore (GLEN) 328.70p 2.48%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,379.50p 2.00%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 898.00p 1.93%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,639.00p 1.86%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 880.50p 1.67%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 494.90p 1.62%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,391.50p 1.57%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,385.00p 1.39%
Old Mutual (OML) 213.90p 1.28%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 231.50p 1.14%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 361.30p -1.82%
Standard Life (SL.) 364.60p -1.57%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,131.00p -1.23%
Worldpay Group (WPG) 268.80p -1.18%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,600.00p -1.15%
Capita (CPI) 520.00p -1.14%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,884.00p -0.74%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 196.25p -0.73%
Next (NXT) 3,938.00p -0.71%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,289.00p -0.65%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 172.40p 5.12%
Evraz (EVR) 258.70p 4.23%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,489.00p 3.71%
Spectris (SXS) 2,413.00p 3.16%
Vectura Group (VEC) 145.10p 2.76%
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust (ASL) 1,197.00p 2.66%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 336.20p 2.41%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,101.00p 1.94%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,521.00p 1.94%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 87.10p 1.87%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Greene King (GNK) 650.50p -3.84%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 112.50p -2.17%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 256.40p -1.65%
Debenhams (DEB) 54.75p -1.44%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,190.00p -1.41%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 152.90p -1.35%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 187.20p -1.21%
Beazley (BEZ) 425.80p -1.09%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 352.80p -1.07%
Britvic (BVIC) 627.50p -1.03%