FTSE 100 opened 60 points higher to 7,055 this morning despite a downbeat end to last week in US markets and tension in the Eurozone over a Greek exit.
The index was buoyed by the People’s Bank of China’s attempt to stimulate the Chinese economy. Over the weekend the bank cut the reserves requirement ratio by a higher than anticipated 1% to free up cash for investment.
Of the UK’s blue chip stocks, mining giant Anglo American (ON:AAL) led the risers, up more than 2.8% to 1,039p as commodity prices crept up over the weekend.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) led the fallers as a report said the company expects to announce a £5bn loss in its full year announcement later this week. Shares eased 0.5% to 235p.
Oil services group Petrofac (LON:PFC) will take a further £130mln hit from a gas project in Shetland. Shares fell 12.5% to 886p.
Tool and equipment provider HSS Hire (LON:HSS) rose 1.4% to 211p after revenues surged 25%, almost £60mln to £284mln.
In broker news, BNP Paribas turned bullish on speciality plastics group Victrex (LON:VCT) with an ‘outperform’ rating. Shares jumped 3% to 2,056p for the FTSE 250 firm.
Northgate (LON:NTG) was 4% higher to 652p after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight’ by analysts at Barclays Capital.
To small caps and Audioboom (LON:BOOM) jumped more than 2% to 7.6p after the company revealed a record breaking March performance.
Shares in mining minnow Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO) leapt almost 65% to 7.6p after it said it has signed a development agreement for its Rukwa coal to power project with engineering firm SEPCO.
Investment company and Kibo shareholder Metal Tiger (LON:MTR) also jumped 8% to 0.9p following the news.
Frontera Resources (LON:FRR) shares advanced in early deals after a business update revealed an estimate of up to 8.29 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of in-place gas at the Mtsare Khevi project in Georgia. Shares were 4% higher at 1.15p.
Anthony Balme, executive chairman of Ortac Resources (LON:OTC), has sold 19,062,501 Ortac shares last Friday at a price of 0.08p per share
He immediately repurchased 18,978,192 ordinary shares at a price of 0.0802p per share into his ISA account. Shares were 7% lower today to 0.1p.
Gold miner Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) shed 10% despite making a profit in 2014. Production in the first quarter of this year dropped, causing the slide.
Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) has brought in £210,000 through placing 105mln shares with an institutional investor at 0.2p a share. Shares were more than 18% higher in early trading to 0.29p.
Asia Resource Minerals (LON:ARMS) told investors it has received no formal takeover offer from a hedge fund which put out a potential bid last week. Shares eased 5% to 26p.