LONDON MARKET OPEN: Miners Help FTSE 100 Surge As Trade Tensions Ease

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 index kicked off December with an impressive 2% surge, with miners among the best performers in London on Monday amid easing world trade tensions and better-than-expected manufacturing data from China."The fact that the talks between the US and China have not broken and the rug hasn't been pulled from under, this is likely to fuel the relief rally in risk assets for this month. Nonetheless, it is important to keep in mind, that the jury is still out and there is no assurance that these short-term gains can shape into long-term gains," commented ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam.The blue-chip FTSE 100 index jumped 138.56 points, or 2%, in early trade to 7,118.80. The FTSE 250 was up 1.4%, or 264.79 points, at 18,745.62 and the AIM All-Share was 1.1% higher at 940.20.The Cboe UK 100 was up 2.2% at 12,084.68, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 1.3% at 16,743.12. The Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,415.01. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 2.0% and 2.6%, respectively. Stocks in Asia also rallied overnight, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ending up 1.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 2.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended up 2.5%.Amid broad-based gains, London-listed miners were among the biggest beneficiaries of a truce between the US and China, as well as the better-than-expected manufacturing data from China.The US and China over the weekend agreed to a 90-day ceasefire in their trade war, giving the sides time to continue negotiations.The announcement followed talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Argentina at the close of the G20 summit. The meeting lasted more than two hours.Trump agreed that on January 1 he would leave the recently increased tariffs on USD200 billion worth of Chinese product at 10% and not raise the rate to 25%, as he had threatened. Negotiations between the sides in the next three months will also look at intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft.The White House warned that if the sides could not reach a deal in the allotted time frame, the tariffs would go up.Adding to good news for mining stocks, overnight data showed the manufacturing sector in China - the country being the world's largest steel producer - accelerated slightly in November.The Caixin manufacturing PMI came in at 50.2 for November, beating expectations for a score of 50.1, which would have been unchanged from the October reading. It also moved slightly further above the line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.Anglo American was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 8.0%, while Glencore gained 7.9%, Antofagasta 6.0%, and Rio Tinto 5.8%.In the FTSE 250, Spirax-Sarco Engineering was up 3.3% after selling its HygroMatik business for EUR59.0 million.HygroMatik joined the Spirax Sarco group in 1988, but the company explained that, "due to limited strategic fit" the unit has always operated separately from the Steam Specialties division in which it is reported."This low level of integration limits our ability to improve sales growth while maintaining HygroMatik's excellent profitability," the company said. The unit has been sold to Carel Industries. Stobart Group was down 6.5% after the company said it will be reducing its dividend payout for its current financial year in order to invest in "value-creating opportunities" and "maintain a strong balance sheet".The Southend airport owner said it plans to pay a 1.5p dividend for the fourth quarter, meaning that the total dividend paid in the current financial year is 15p per share, down from 16.5p the year before.The company also said trading has been in line with expectations, and expansion opportunities at Southend airport "increasingly evident" following commercial agreements with Ryanair and easyJet along with other airline partners.The agreements provide confidence that the airport will record a significant increase in passengers from next year, Stobart said, targetting 5 million holiday-makers from 2022.RPC Group was down 3.7% after the plastic products maker said that takeover talks with Apollo Global Management continue, though it "mutually agreed" to terminate discussions with Bain Capital.Apollo now has until December 21 to either announce a firm offer for the FTSE 250 constituent or walk away. Bain has until 1700 GMT on Monday to either make a firm offer or walk away, and RPC has not requested an extension to this deadline."A further announcement will be made when appropriate. There can be no certainty that any offer will be made for the company, nor as to the terms on which any offer might be made," said RPC.Elsewhere, McColl's Retail tumbled 24% after the company warned on "transitional challenges" and "continued difficult trading conditions" in its recently-ended financial year.As a result, the company expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the year ended November 25 to be around GBP35 million. For the previous financial year, adjusted Ebitda, excluding property-related items, was GBP44.0 million."We now expect adjusted Ebitda for FY19 to be no more than a modest improvement on FY18," the company said. Chief Executive Jonathan Miller added that 2018 had been a "very difficult year" for the business. "Looking ahead, we expect competition in the grocery retail sector to remain intense and we face into significant cost pressures. Important to our future success will be continuing to develop our partnership with Morrisons, alongside our plans to enhance our neighbourhood convenience offer by improving the quality of our estate and our overall customer experience," said Miller. In the international economic calendar on Monday, there are manufacturing PMIs from France, Germany, the eurozone and the UK at 0850 GMT, 0855 GMT, 0900 GMT and 0930 GMT respectively. In the afternoon is the ISM manufacturing PMI from the US at 1500 GMT.