Monday 21 December 2015 8:54 am

FTSE 100 index opens up as miners and ITV make gains while Associated British Foods, Rolls-Royce and Smith and Nephew fall

The FTSE 100 index opened up this morning, as losses from Primark owner Associated British Foods (ABF) and Rolls-Royce were compensated for by gains at miners, BG Group and ITV.

The UK's top blue-chip index was 0.64 per cent up at 6,052 points in early morning trading.

BG Group was 0.97 per cent higher at 916.85p per share as the company announced it planned to hold general meetings in January, when shareholders will vote on the mega-merger with Royal Dutch Shell.

BG Group will today hope to gain the High Court's approval to hold shareholder meetings for the deal, which was announced on 8 April.

Glencore and Anglo American – incidentally two of the companies which have lost a lot of weight this year – were also trading up 3.1 per cent to 83.38p per share and 1.56 per cent at 283.38p per share respectively.

ITV led the pack after it emerged Comcast's NBCUniversal was reportedly bidding to takeover home of Downton Abbey. Its share price was 3.98 per cent up at 274.25p.

However, ABF fell 1.12 per cent to 3,287p per share after it was downgraded by analysts at RBC Capital to "underperform", according to MarketBeat.com.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce dropped 1.39 per cent to 568.5p per share, the day after Warren East, chief executive, raised new risks to the performance of the aerospace company's diesel engine business.

Smith and Nephew shares were also 0.94 per cent down at 1,161p, after the company was given a boost by speculation it was the target of a bid by Stryker, a US medical technology company, last week.