1630: Close The FTSE ended Monday's session with modest losses, pulled lower by the mining sector, which tracked metal prices downwards. ITV made decent gains, rising on continuing speculation that the group is close to a takeover. In economic news, a poll revealed that only a third of Britons would vote to stay in the EU, while elsewhere it was revealed that January shopper numbers dropped to their lowest level in three years last month, largely due to the bad weather conditions. The FTSE closed down 10 points at 6,318.

1521: Analysts at Credit Suisse said Monday they expect Anglo American's net debt to climb, providing limited options for growth for incoming Chief Executive Officer Mark Cutifani. The broker explained that the group's levels of capital expenditure (capex) are still increasing and are now greater following raised capex guidance from management, while free cash flow is negative despite operational improvement across the mining company and an improved earnings forecast for this year. Last week the company raised its guidance on capex for 2013/2014 to between 7.5-8bn dollars and 6.5-7bn dollars, whereas the broker had previously modeled 6bn dollars and less than 5bn dollars, respectively.

1128: ITV is now at the top of the leader board with traders citing the recent increase in mergers and acquisitions as the reason behind the advance in the company's - the perennial take-over target's - shares.

1015: Reports suggest that Vodafone may make a move for Kabel Deutschland as early as next week. Some observers believe that Vodafone is waiting for the German outfit to first publish its annual accounts, which are due out this next Wednesday.

0832: London equities are seeing some slight selling pressure in the early going, with miners the weakest group now on the benchmark after news that Chinese holiday retail sales grew at their slowest in four years. Anglo American is also seeing some selling pressure after Credit Suisse wrote this morning that the company is "12-18 months behind peers on its investment cycle, with capital expenditure still increasing through 2013 and free-cash-flows (FCF) negative.(...) Without a more fundamental shake up of the business shape (e.g. stake sales, M&A), in our view the value case for AAL remains elusive and long dated." Analysts at Deutsche Bank and Citi, however, have lifted their targets on the stock. The Swiss broker, on the other hand, has lifted its price target on shares of Sage to 284p from 278p before. Sterling is on its back-foot at the moment, falling by 0.13% to the 1.5456 dollar level. FTSE 100 down 7 to 6,321.

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