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London open: Miners lead equities higher
UK equities were led higher by mining stocks on Friday as oil and copper prices rose.
Anglo American, Glencore, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta and BP were the top risers on the FTSE 100 in morning trade.
Oil prices regained strength as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US was headed for more economic growth. At 0904 BST, Brent crude jumped 2.2% to $40.33 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate increased 2.7% to $38.31 per barrel. Copper prices were also up 0.41% on the Comex.
Speaking at a panel before former Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan at the International House in New York on Thursday, Yellen touted the strength of the labour market and rebuffed suggestions that an economic bubble is about to burst.
“I certainly wouldn’t describe this as a bubble economy,” Yellen said, responding to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump’s claims.
Closer to home, the UK will see the release of March industrial and manufacturing production figure at 0930 BST.
“Whilst this month’s data misses the current steel crisis, things still don’t look pretty; manufacturing is expected to slip into negative territory (-0.2%) from February’s 0.7%, whilst the industrial production data is forecast to fall from 0.3% to 0.1% month-on-month,” said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.
UK trade data from the Office for National Statistics at 0930 BST is expected to reveal the deficit narrowed to £3.4bn in February from £3.5bn in January.
Meanwhile, a report from the NIESR on its UK gross domestic product estimate will be released at 1500 BST.
In the US, data on wholesale inventories in February will be published at 1500 BST, with economists projecting a 0.2% drop in February compared to a month ago.
In company news, Associated British Foods rallied after saying it had reached an agreement with the board of Illovo Sugar to acquire the 48.65% interest in Illovo that it did not already own.
Tullow Oil declined as it said there has been damage to the turret bearing on a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit at its Jubilee field in Ghana. However, the company does not expect this to have any significant impact on revenue.
