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UK stocks opened flat as parliament gets ready to vote on the Brexit deal, while positive vaccine news was largely shrugged off.
At 09:00, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 3 points, or 0.05%, at 6,599.74. Parliament is expected to vote later on Wednesday on whether to approve the post-Brexit trade deal. The Labour party, the opposition, has indicated it would back the deal. Drugmaker AstraZeneca was up 0.7% to £75.10 after its COVID-19 vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, had been approved for emergency use in the UK on Tuesday. Gold and nickel exploration and development company Katoro Gold jumped 9.8% to 236 pence after launching its maiden drill programme at the Haneti nickel project in Tanzania. Canadian Overseas Petroleum fell 21.7% to 24 pence after detailing plans to raise $6 million through a discounted placing. Energean was up 0.6% to 702.4 pence after entering into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Kerogen to acquire the latter's 30% stake in Energean Israel.
Oil and gas company Petrotal rose 5.5% to £13.92 after completing its first export of Bretana oil into the Atlantic region through Brazil to Novum Energy Trading for US$2.7 million.