At 09:40GMT, the UK’s top index is almost flat with a four point gain to push the value marginally above 5,600 at 5,602.39.
Goldman Sachs hiked-up target prices in certain mining stock. Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ), Lonmin (LON:LMI) and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) were all on the end of improved target outlooks with Kazakhmys leading mining gains with a 0.9 per cent share price improvement. However, the latter two stocks were both trading flat as investors remain cautious about the mining sector on UBS’ downgrade in the previous session.
UBS said on Friday that the sector is facing difficult times concerning potential growth with government rulings on mineral leases and the proposed supertax on mining profits in Australia set to hinder metal-based stocks.
And along with miners, the rest of the FTSE 100 stocks seemed to be subject to cautious trading after the UK’s top index broke a three-day losing streak on Friday on the back of better-than-forecast economic data released in the US.
However, with double-dip recessions still on investor minds following strong reports about a number of select economies, including Ireland, risk appetite remains sedated on Monday morning.
Banks widely remain out of favour with Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS), Barclays (LON:BARC) and HSBC Holdings (LON:HSBA) all in negative territory in the region of 0.2 to 0.5 per cent.
However, Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) is bucking the trend with a 0.7 per cent share price improvement after the Scottish arm of the bank announced it had seen evidence of mild recovery for the Scottish economy.
However, topping the FTSE 100 gainers charts this morning is Unilever, which has agreed to buy the US hair care group Alberto Culver Co for around £2.3bn. The share price has soared 2.6 per cent higher on the news.
Tracking Unilever’s gains is software firm Autonomy Corporation (LON:AU) after it announced last week that it had signed a multi-million dollar agreement with US electricity and natural gas company Xcel Energy to use the Cambridge-based firms products. The share price is 1.2 per cent ahead.
At the other end of the scale, it’s risk stocks that mainly make up the FTSE 100 fallers charts.
Amongst those are drug-maker AstraZeneca (LON:AZN), which has a declining share price of 0.7 per cent after its experimental prostate cancer pill Zibotentan failed to improve survival in a late-stage clinical trial.
Also in negative territory is builders merchant Wolseley (LON:WOS) which has said it will change its corporate structure and relocate to Switzerland for tax reasons. The share price has fallen by more than two per cent as a result.
Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) is down by more than two per cent too after the technology group received a downgrade from Bank of America ML.
Tracking Unilever’s gains is software firm Autonomy Corporation (LON:AU) after it announced last week that it had signed a multi-million dollar agreement with US electricity and natural gas company Xcel Energy to use the Cambridge-based firms products. The share price is 1.2 per cent ahead.
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