UK equity markets opened down for a second consecutive day, as investors worldwide await the release by the US Federal Reserve of the minutes from its last meeting.
Yesterday, current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke dropped some clues about future US monetary policy by saying interest rates could remain at zero or close "for a considerable time" after the Fed's asset purchase programme has ended.
Back in the UK, investors will also be able to scrutinise the Bank of England's latest interest rate meeting minutes today.
In the meantime, the FTSE 100 was down 8 points to 6,689, while the FTSE All Share dropped 5 points to 3,558.
On the corporate front, Telecom Plus (LON:TEP) hit the headlines after announcing a transformational acquisition.
The company will pay £218mln for Electricity Plus Supply and Gas Plus Supply, both of which are owned by Npower, the energy supplier that this week was revealed to have the highest complaint rate among the “Big Six”, according to research by Consumer Futures.
Npower is a subsidiary of German firm RWE.
Telecom Plus, which already supplies a wide range of utility services to both residential and business customers, said it will be able to take advantage of a new 20 year energy supply agreement with Npower as a result of the deal.
The group is raising £130mln to help fund the acquisition, through a share placing and open offer of shares at 1,475p each.
Shares in the company gained over 13% to 1,708p.
New World Oil and Gas (LON:NEW) soared after the company said it expects the issues holding up the investment from Niel Petroleum to be resolved later this month.
In a stock market statement, New World said it is continuing to work with Niel to finalise the share subscription. And it said it believes Niel fully intends to complete its investment in the company.
Shares jumped over 17% to 0.763p.
Beacon Hill Resources (LON:BHR) was also a strong riser after it revealed it has carried out its first test of the new rail loading facility and sidings at its Minas Moatize coal mine in Tete, Mozambique.
A maiden cargo of 2,600 tonnes of coal was loaded from the facility. Work on the site is continuing with the aim to have a fully operational facility in place by the end of next March, Beacon Hill said.
Beacon Hill added it had also made good progress in other areas of its rail logistics plan, with five locomotives to be ready by the end of the month and 90 rail wagons to arrive by the end of January. Shares gained 7% to 0.868p.
Also on the up was Rambler Metals & Mining (LON:RMM, CVE:RAB).
The group's first quarter performance has left it well placed to hit its full-year targets.
The copper and gold producer racked up record production of copper concentrate in the three months to the end of October, up 26% year-on-year (YOY). Shares gained 3.5% to 28.19p.
Elsewhere, Iofina (LON:IOF) was slightly down despite revealing iodine production has hit record levels as it has received sign off to start production from a third plant.
Construction continues on the company’s fourth and fifth plants. However, the completion dates have been extended out to the first quarter of next year because of delays to the delivery of towers used in these operations. Shares fell 2.5% to 165p.
Finally, note that newly listed women’s value clothing retailer Bonmarché (LON:BON) started trading on AIM today and went straight to a premium to the placing price.
Today, the first day of dealings, shares were changing hands at 215.50p - around a 7.5% increase on the placing price.