London open: Stocks edge higher ahead of BoE minutes

18th Jul 2012 08:37

- MPC minutes due out shortly- Markets still digesting Bernanke comments- Fresnillo, Ashmore, Schroders lead the risers on the FootsieThe FTSE 100 edged higher on Wednesday morning ahead of the Bank of England minutes due out shortly. Meanwhile, a well-received earnings report from Swiss banking titan Credit Suisse lifted the mood for European markets early on.The minutes from the July meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee are due out at 09:30. "We expect the MPC minutes to show that the vote to keep Bank Rate at 0.5% and to increase the stock of asset purchases by £50bn to £375bn were both unanimous," said analysts at Barclays Capital.Stocks were dampened yesterday by the Federal Reserve's semi-annual policy report to Congress as Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the central bank is "prepared to take further action as appropriate". The comments were more or less in line with his comments in the past, disappointing markets who were hoping for hints at further stimulus.FTSE 100: Fresnillo jumps; Ashmore, Schroders lifted by broker upgradesSilver and gold miner Fresnillo surged after notching up record levels of gold production in the second quarter while silver output was up quarter-on-quarter.Fund managers Ashmore and Schroders were high risers early on after Goldman Sachs upgraded its ratings on the stocks to 'buy' and 'conviction buy', respectively.RSA Insurance was a heavy faller after the miserable weather over the past few months put a dampener on its full-year underwriting performance.Real estate group Land Securities fell despite saying that it has seen "good momentum" on lettings across all schemes in the first quarter. Land Secs and sector peers Hammerson and British Land were being pressured lower after Barclays Capital downgraded the stocks to 'equal weight'. Meanwhile, tobacco giant Imperial fell after going ex-dividend.Oil and gas giant Tullow edged higher after finding oil and gas-condensate at its Wawa-1 well offshore Ghana, likely to reassure shareholders who were disappointed on Monday after the firm said that it had plugged and abandoned a well in Guyana due to safety concerns.Resources behemoth BHP Billiton was making small gains after achieving annual production records across ten of its operations in the year to the end of June. FTSE 250: CSR pulls back; Homeserve up after quashing M&A rumoursWireless technology and computer chip company CSR was in the red, pulling back after gaining over 30% the day before as it announced the sale of its handset connectivity technology business to Samsung. UBS downgraded the stock from 'buy' to 'neutral' this morning.Homeserve, the troubled emergency home repairs company, jumped despite denying it is in talks about a possible takeover.Food and drink wholesaler Booker advanced after posting a 1.7% increase in sales for the 12 weeks to June 22nd and saying it remains on course to meet expectations for the full year.FTSE 100 - RisersFresnillo (FRES) 1,465.00p +4.05%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 330.60p +2.67%G4S (GFS) 244.60p +1.92%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,217.00p +1.76%Capital Shopping Centres Group (CSCG) 331.80p +1.34%Kingfisher (KGF) 274.50p +1.33%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,705.00p +0.97%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 321.10p +0.88%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 860.50p +0.88%Compass Group (CPG) 659.00p +0.84%FTSE 100 - FallersUnited Utilities Group (UU.) 686.00p -1.72%Hammerson (HMSO) 460.20p -1.46%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,875.50p -1.41%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 106.90p -1.29%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,513.00p -1.26%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,126.00p -1.14%ICAP (IAP) 305.10p -1.07%Reed Elsevier (REL) 527.50p -1.03%Wolseley (WOS) 2,261.00p -0.96%Evraz (EVR) 248.40p -0.88%FTSE 250 - RisersHomeserve (HSV) 180.50p +8.08%NMC Health (NMC) 199.90p +3.58%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 32.44p +2.76%Hays (HAS) 67.95p +2.33%Carpetright (CPR) 635.00p +2.01%Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 133.00p +1.92%Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 490.90p +1.91%Elementis (ELM) 182.20p +1.79%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 16.23p +1.63%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 397.60p +1.58%FTSE 250 - FallersTelecom Plus (TEP) 840.00p -3.45%Perform Group (PER) 350.00p -3.31%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 261.00p -3.05%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 984.50p -2.81%Menzies(John) (MNZS) 611.00p -2.32%CSR (CSR) 286.40p -1.92%Melrose (MRO) 220.70p -1.91%Henderson Group (HGG) 96.55p -1.78%Halma (HLMA) 407.70p -1.33%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 214.00p -1.29%BC