BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - U.K. stocks were modestly higher on Monday as investors digested the latest headlines on Sino-American trade negotiations and assessed progress in the Brexit talks.
The benchmark FTSE 100 was up 24 points or 0.33 percent at 7,202 in opening deals after closing up 0.2 percent on Friday.
Sainsbury shares rose over 1 percent. American private equity giant KKR is plotting a bid for Asda as the supermarket's 14 billion pounds merger with rival Sainsbury's teeters on the brink of collapse, The Sunday Times reported.
Outsourcing firm Interserve tumbled 3.5 percent on restructuring news.
Housebuilder Persimmon slumped nearly 6 percent as a review of the public funding scheme comes due.
Mining giant Anglo American edged up slightly after restarting operations at is Moranbah North coal facility in Australia's Queensland state.
Associated British Foods fell over 2 percent on saying it expects first-half adjusted earnings per share to be broadly in line with last year.
Hammerson dropped 1.7 percent. The property development and investment firm reported a pretax loss of 266.7 million pounds for the year ended 31 December 2018 compared to profit of 413.4 million pounds, previous year.
Gold mining company Centamin plummeted 19 percent after its fourth-quarter profit before tax declined to $50.49 million from last year's $77.35 million.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
