London open: Footsie up early on, pharmas fall

9th Jan 2012 08:18

London's FTSE 100 opened slightly higher on Monday morning helped by banking titans Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC. Oil stocks Essar Energy, Tullow Oil and Royal Dutch Shell were tracking oil prices higher.Today's big event will be the meeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy this morning. They will hold a joint press conference later today and are expected to discuss steps to boost growth in EU countries and could examine proposals for the implementation of the financial transaction tax despite open opposition by the UK.In several interviews over the weekend, British Prime Minister David Cameron indicated that the tax simply "makes no sense" unless it was implemented throughout the world and insisted that he would move to block the measure. Nevertheless, Sarkozy has vowed to implement the tax in France even if other EU partners, including Germany, decide not to move forward with the measure. In company news, drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline was a heavy faller despite saying that that the the phase III registration programme for the once-a-day respiratory medicine, Relovair, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been completed.Glaxo admitted that a 24-week "superiority study" of Relovair against Seretide in asthma patients "did not meet the predefined threshold for superiority". Glaxo described this study as "non-pivotal".Sector peer AstraZeneca also fell after saying that full-year earnings are now expected to come in at a the lower end of previous guidance. While the firm reiterated that core earnings per share (EPS) for 2011 will come within the expected range of $7.20 to $7.40 a share (set out in its third quarter results in October), they are now likely to be in the lower half of forecasts.Supermarket giant Morrisons was among the worst performers after like-for-like (LFL) sales growth slowed in the final six weeks of 2011. LFL sales excluding fuel rose 0.7% in the period, down from the 2.4% growth seen in the third quarter.Rio Tinto edged higher after announcing that it has now taken up 93.76% of the outstanding common shares of the Canadian uranium firm, Hathor Exploration. Rio now intends to acquire all outstanding Hathor common shares not already purchased through a compulsory acquisition under the Canada Business Corporations Act. Credit-checking and information services firm Experian was in demand despite announcing the death of Chief Financial Officer Paul Brooks. Brooks was also a non-executive director at Serco.BCFTSE 100 - RisersInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,202.00p +2.39%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 109.70p +1.57%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 20.78p +1.32%Essar Energy (ESSR) 172.90p +1.29%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,680.00p +1.14%ARM Holdings (ARM) 616.00p +1.07%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 503.20p +1.00%CRH (CRH) 1,227.00p +0.90%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,015.00p +0.89%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,420.00p +0.85%FTSE 100 - FallersAntofagasta (ANTO) 1,254.00p -1.26%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,478.50p -1.24%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,050.00p -1.04%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 308.50p -0.90%Evraz (EVR) 383.10p -0.70%Tesco (TSCO) 388.20p -0.69%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,136.00p -0.65%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 603.50p -0.58%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 708.00p -0.49%Capita (CPI) 637.50p -0.39%FTSE 250 - RisersRentokil Initial (RTO) 67.15p +3.95%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 124.00p +3.77%Henderson Group (HGG) 104.40p +3.67%Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 175.00p +3.55%Soco International (SIA) 300.00p +3.31%Exillon Energy (EXI) 283.10p +2.87%Lancashire Holdings (LRE) 709.50p +2.75%Persimmon (PSN) 494.10p +2.72%Rank Group (RNK) 135.00p +2.51%EnQuest (ENQ) 106.50p +2.40%FTSE 250 - FallersDebenhams (DEB) 56.00p -4.36%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 259.00p -3.00%Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 424.10p -2.95%Ocado Group (OCDO) 56.60p -2.50%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 189.90p -1.86%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.7 -1.76%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 17.24p -1.32%Electrocomponents (ECM) 201.40p -1.32%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 36.24p -1.28%Kentz Corporation Ltd. (KENZ) 444.40p -1.24%