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London open: Stocks gain on rally in miners
The FTSE 100 started Friday on the front foot as mining stocks rallied on the back of an increase in metal and oil prices.
Glencore, Anglo America, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto led the gains on London’s top tier index, bolstered by a rise in gold, silver and copper prices.
Oil prices were also sitting higher after official US data showed production fell to its lowest level since November 2014, soothing concerns about the supply glut.
Brent crude climbed 0.11% to $37.11 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate gained 0.26% to $34.66 per barrel.
While US crude inventories grew to a new record of 517.98m barrels last week, output fell for a sixth straight week to 9.08m barrels a day, according to the US government’s Energy Information Administration.
Turning to Friday’s economic calendar, the focus will be on the all-important US non-farm payrolls report at 1330 GMT, which the Federal Reserve is taking into consideration as it determines the timing of its next change to interest rates. Analysts expect US employers added 195,000 jobs in February and that the unemployment rate held at 4.9%.
In company news, shares in the London Stock Exchange dropped despite reporting strong underlying growth in the full year as it hinted at a deal for a merger with Deutsche Borse.
“This represents a compelling opportunity to strengthen each other in an industry-defining combination, by creating a global market infrastructure group with significant benefits for our customers and shareholders,” chief executive Xavier Rolet said of the proposed deal.
WPP was also in the red as the advertising giant warned of a tough economic outlook that could hurt its clients.
