Source: Sharecast
MUFG Bank analyst, Lee Hardman, attributed the latter to the fresh positive headlines around US-China trade and resulting improvement in risk appetite.
On Monday morning, Beijing's ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, reportedly suggested that his country would honour its commitments under the phase one trade deal agreed with Washington.
Also dragging on the US currency were the Federal Reserve's ongoing year-end repurchase operations, which had been undersubscribed recently, Hardman explained.
As of 0813 GMT, the FTSE 100 was slipping by 9.64 points to 7,635.35 as the pound added 0.24% to 1.31054 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was down by 3.92 points at 22,055.06, with sterling little changed against the European single currency and trading lower by 0.03% at 1.1703.
Nonetheless, trading volumes in shares were expected to be extraordinarily thin throughout the week.
Making just that point, Marshall Gittler at ACLS Global told clients: "Occasionally [the first trading week of the year] are the most volatile weeks of the year, probably because the market is so thin. As long as nothing untoward or unexpected happens, you’re probably safe spending your time a) partying and b) recovering from partying, but you might want to cover any open positions just in case."
No major economic reports were scheduled for release in the UK on Monday. However, on the other side of the Atlantic, investors were waiting on readings for foreign trade in November at 1330 GMT, MNI's regional Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index for December at 1445 GMT and the NAHB's Pending Home Sales index at 1500 GMT.
To take note of, at the weekend, US national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, reportedly said that North Korea may have reconsidered its threatened 'Christmas gift' to the US, which some observers believed would take the form of a long-range missile test before the end of the year.
In other geopolitical news, overnight pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine carried out a swap of 200 prisoners.
Drug giant scores new drug approval
AstraZeneca announced alongside MSD on Monday that Lynparza, or ‘olaparib’, has been approved in the United States for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline BRCA-mutated metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma, or pancreatic cancer, whose disease had not progressed on at least 16 weeks of a first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the approval followed the recommendation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee on 17 December for Lynparza in the indication, and was based on results from the pivotal phase 3 POLO trial.
Rio Tinto has started the process of resuming operations at Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) in South Africawhich, it announced on Monday. The move followed discussions led by the Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Sihle Zikalala, involving all stakeholders, which were focussed on “securing stability” in order to address the issues in the community, and provide a stable environment for RBM to resume operations. It said a phased restart was now in progress across the operation, with RBM expected to return to full operations in early January, leading to regular production in early 2020.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,637.88 -0.09%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 22,050.42 -0.04%
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FTSE 100 - Risers
NMC Health (NMC) 1,774.50p 2.22%
Just Eat (JE.) 838.00p 1.01%
Prudential (PRU) 1,451.50p 0.76%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,258.00p 0.73%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,668.00p 0.68%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 243.80p 0.49%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 848.00p 0.45%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,194.00p 0.38%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 609.80p 0.36%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 703.80p 0.34%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Next (NXT) 7,200.00p -0.96%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,011.00p -0.89%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,530.00p -0.63%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,431.00p -0.61%
BAE Systems (BA.) 576.40p -0.55%
Ferguson (FERG) 6,996.00p -0.54%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,706.00p -0.50%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,222.00p -0.49%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 391.40p -0.48%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,952.00p -0.47%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 829.00p 1.41%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 157.15p 1.26%
Essentra (ESNT) 438.80p 1.25%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 171.30p 1.24%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 885.00p 1.07%
Fresnillo (FRES) 626.60p 1.06%
Capita (CPI) 168.15p 0.99%
Future (FUTR) 1,490.00p 0.95%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 118.35p 0.81%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 251.00p 0.80%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Vivo Energy (VVO) 117.20p -4.72%
Helios Towers (HTWS) 150.00p -2.34%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 116.60p -2.18%
Kainos Group (KNOS) 736.00p -1.87%
Trainline (TRN) 505.00p -1.17%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 145.35p -1.12%
Smithson Investment Trust (SSON) 1,310.00p -1.06%
888 Holdings (888) 164.00p -1.03%
Senior (SNR) 177.00p -1.01%
Primary Health Properties (PHP) 158.00p -1.00%
