STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-UK small caps edge up; Picton Property gains

The FTSE small cap index rises 0.1 percent, outperforming the junior FTSE AIM All Share index, which is down 0.1 percent.

Shares in Picton Property Income rise 3 percent as the fund reports its net assets increased 13.5 percent to 204.3 million pounds ($336.35 million)in the last three months of the 2013.

"Today's announcement highlights the accelerating pace of the secondary market recovery and the significant benefit of a higher than sector average gearing level at this point in the cycle," Liberum's analysts write in a note, reiterating their "buy" recommendation on the stock.

Volume on the shares is nearly twice its full-day average for the past three months, compared with just over half the average for the FTSE small cap index.

AIM-listed Bezant Resources falls 5.3 percent in volume 20 times the average as Gold Fields Netherlands Services decides not to exercise an option to buy Bezant's Mankayan copper-gold project in the Philippines.

Gold Fields (Xetra: EDG.DE - news) had until the end of the month to choose whether or not to buy the project, for which the price had been set at $60.5 million.

Reuters messaging rm://francesco.canepa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

($1 = 0.6074 British pounds)