UK markets open for trade on Monday on the front foot although there is precious little corporate news to steer investors one way or the other. At 9am the benchmark FTSE 100 index is quietly in positive territory, adding around 7 points to 7,434.84, with investors seemingly drawn to seek out bargains following a weaker end to last week.
The FTSE 250 mid cap index is also on the rise, up close on 70 points at 19,926.82.
Leading the blue chips higher is an assortment of travel related stocks, with holidays firm TUI (TUI) topping the leader board with a 2.5% rise at 867p, and there is a modest rebound for under fire bank Barclays, 2% higher at 864.4p.
FERREXPO LAUNCHES DEFENCE
Iron ore miner Ferrexpo (FXPO) is also in demand after issuing a detailed response to the resignation of its auditor last week. The update states that further work is required to confirm whether charitable donations made to Blooming Land were misappropriated, while also hitting back against claims by its former auditor Deloitte that it had delayed an independent review into the donations.
Deloitte had resigned as the group's auditors last week and claimed that Ferrexpo delayed launching an independent review into the donations, but the company said it 'believes it initiated the formal Independent Review at the appropriate time, given the other steps it was taking and all the surrounding circumstances.'
Ferrexpo also defended its decision to release its full year results prior to the conclusion of the Independent Review, which had required Deloitte to qualify its audit opinion.
The response seems to be finding plenty of investor support, with Ferrexpo shares storming more than 10^% higher to 212.9p, the biggest riser of any among the FTSE All Share index.
Acting as a brake to wider market gains are weak utility stocks and a slide at grocery logistics technology company Ocado (OCDO), down 1.5% at £13.765.
PROMISING NEWS ON CANCER TREATMENT
Pharma giant AstraZeneca (AZN) said European regulators had offered a positive opinion on it and partner MSD's treatment for ovarian cancer. The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency delivered a positive opinion on the cancer drug Lynparza and recommended it as a first-line maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer.
The positive opinion was based on data from the pivotal Phase III SOLO-1 trial which showed that the pancreatic cancer drug Lynparza reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 70% compared with a placebo.
Investors welcome the news lifting shares in the group 47p to £58.42.
Online car sales operator Auto Trader (AUTO) has confirmed that chief executive Trevor Mather will retire at the end of March next year.
The new boss will come from within thanks to the firm’s long-term succession planning, with Nathan Coe, currently Auto Trader’s joint chief operating and financial officer, to be promoted to the top job-designate role as of 1 May 2019, which should ensure a neatly managed handover.
The shares nudge modestly lower to 577.2p.
DIVIDENDS AND BUYBACKS
Self storage group Lok'nStore (LOK:AIM) hiked its dividend for the half year as pre-tax profits grew by a fifth, lifting the shares 2.5p to 497.5p.
For the six months to 31 January 2019, pre-tax profit rose 20% to £2.69m as revenue grew £8.51m up 11.5%. The uptick in revenue as driven mainly from occupancy growth of 8% with prices up 1.4%.
Building supplies business CRH (CRH) will kick-start its €350m share buyback programme today, a programme that will run through to 29 August.
CRH entered into arrangements with J&E Davy to repurchase ordinary shares on CRH's behalf for a maximum consideration of €350m, representing up to 10% of the its outstanding shares, the company said.