London open: Stocks rebound after heavy sell-off

5th Apr 2012 08:28

- Market awaits BoE decision- Ashmore flying high after upgrade- Miners recover after sell-off yesterdayLondon's blue chip index rose moderately in early trading on Thursday ahead of a long weekend, recovering after yesterday's sell-off.The Footsie fell 135 points, or 2.3%, yesterday on the back of worries over rising bond yields in Europe and fading hopes of extra stimulus for the US economy.The Bank of England (BoE) is to make its its decision on interest rates and asset purchase programme later on this morning. The BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to stand pat on both decisions.Economists at Barclays Capital (BarCap) believe that "the current asset purchase programme will take another two months to complete, and in the absence of a major shift in the economic outlook we think it unlikely that the MPC will adjust its stance before it meets in May. At that point, we expect a halt in asset purchases, but given the patchiness of the recovery, there remains a reasonable chance that quantitative easing (QE) will be extended further."FTSE 100: ASHMORE, MINERS PROVIDE A LIFTFund manager Ashmore was the best performer in the opening hour after UBS upgraded its rating on the stock from neutral to buy, citing recent share price underperformance and strong inflows.Following shortly behind were the miners after a poor showing yesterday. Vedanta Resources, Glencore, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Evraz, ENRC and Antofagasta were among the high risers. Sector peer Polymetal was trading slightly lower after revealing that proved and probably gold equivalent reserves fell by 10% in 2011.Quality control services provider Intertek Group was in demand after it acquired ATI, a provider of asset integrity support services in the US power sector.Utilities group National Grid and SSE were lower, joined by insurance peers Admiral, Resolution and Prudential.FTSE 250: HALFORDS FACING SIGNIFICANT HEADWINDSLike-for-like sales are still heading south in 2012 at Halfords, the retailer focused on the needs of car and bike owners, albeit not as fast as they back-pedalled in 2011. LFL revenue in the UK and the Republic of Ireland was down 2.3% in the 13 weeks to March 30th compared to the corresponding period of 2011, whereas for the year to the end of March, LFL sales were down 2.7%. Shares still fell though, down over 3%.Micro Focus was making gains after UBS raised its recommendation on the stock from neutral to buy and lifted its target price from 440p to 525p. Budget airline easyJet was flying slightly higher after reporting 4.4% more paid seats in March, compared to the same month a year before. The load factor also improved by 1.9 percentage points.FTSE 100 - RisersAshmore Group (ASHM) 377.20p +2.86%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 182.60p +1.61%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,228.00p +1.49%Glencore International (GLEN) 395.10p +1.46%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 899.50p +1.41%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,552.00p +1.24%Evraz (EVR) 357.90p +1.22%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 580.00p +1.22%Barclays (BARC) 221.00p +1.14%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,115.00p +1.09%FTSE 100 - FallersNational Grid (NG.) 630.50p -0.63%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,183.00p -0.50%Resolution Ltd. (RSL) 251.90p -0.43%Experian (EXPN) 967.50p -0.41%BAE Systems (BA.) 294.30p -0.37%Prudential (PRU) 737.50p -0.34%Rexam (REX) 417.90p -0.29%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 809.00p -0.25%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 293.80p -0.24%SSE (SSE) 1,321.00p -0.23%FTSE 250 - RisersNational Express Group (NEX) 245.60p +7.48%Micro Focus International (MCRO) 472.60p +4.12%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 230.80p +3.45%Soco International (SIA) 306.10p +3.24%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 159.70p +2.70%easyJet (EZJ) 493.90p +2.09%AG Barr (BAG) 1,157.00p +1.94%Afren (AFR) 134.60p +1.82%Lamprell (LAM) 329.80p +1.63%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 296.60p +1.61%FTSE 250 - FallersHalfords Group (HFD) 304.80p -3.36%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 172.50p -3.04%Supergroup (SGP) 592.50p -2.31%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,225.00p -1.83%Perform Group (PER) 290.00p -1.59%Redrow (RDW) 123.60p -1.51%Betfair Group (BET) 833.00p -1.07%Booker Group (BOK) 83.80p -0.95%Cranswick (CWK) 800.00p -0.87%Law Debenture Corp. (LWDB) 373.10p -0.85%BC