4th Jul 2019 08:38
(Alliance News) - London stocks got off to a slow start on Thursday, with New York on holiday and focus lying on Friday's US jobs report. "US markets once again closed at record highs yesterday ahead of today's annual 4th July holiday, with Asia markets subdued, while markets here in Europe also opening fairly cautiously, on what is likely to be a fairly low key and low volume session in the absence of US trading," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.Ex-dividend stocks were weighing on the FTSE 100, while the mid-cap index was lifted by news of an acquisition by Energean Oil & Gas.The FTSE 100 was down just 2.40 points at 7,606.92 early Thursday. The FTSE 250 was 8.72 points higher at 19,799.55, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 923.16.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.1% at 12,898.12. The Cboe UK 250 was 0.1% higher at 17,689.11, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.3% at 11,334.62.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.1% and 0.3% higher respectively in morning trade."Markets await tomorrow's key US June labour market figures," said Lloyds Banking. "Yesterday's non-manufacturing ISM fell to a near 2-year low of 55.1 and ADP private payrolls missed expectations for a second month." On Wednesday, payroll processor ADP said 102,000 jobs were added in June, comprised of 60,000 and 65,000 additions in mid-sized and large businesses, respectively, while small firms saw jobs decrease by 23,000.This was below expectations. Consensus, as cited by FXStreet, was for 140,000 jobs to be have been added in June, after just 27,000 in May."The ADP's correlation with official payrolls is not always exact, but investors will be watching for signs of a broader slowdown in the US economy," said Lloyds. A light economic events calendar on Thursday has eurozone retail sales figures at 1000 BST.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.1% in late trade.Three days after the US and North Korean leaders held a historic third meeting, Pyongyang's UN Mission accused Washington on Wednesday of talking about dialogue but being "more and more hell bent" on hostile acts.A press statement from the mission pointed a finger at US efforts to exert "overt pressure" and have the world's nations implement UN sanctions.First, it said, the US and 23 other countries sent a letter to the UN Security Council committee monitoring sanctions on North Korea demanding urgent action "under the absurd pretext of 'excess in the amount of refined petroleum imported'.The US and the other countries accused North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, of violating UN sanctions by importing far more than the annual limit of 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products, which are key for its economy.In London, Burberry was up 2.2% after Mainfirst raised the luxury goods retailer to Outperform from Neutral. At the bottom of the FTSE 100 were ex-dividend stocks International Consolidated Airlines and Coca-Cola HBC, down 6.6% and 5.9% respectively.Persimmon was down 1.1% after the housebuilder said interim revenue slipped as the company focused on customer service initiatives.Revenue in the first half of 2019 fell to GBP1.75 billion from GBP1.84 billion a year before, as the number of legal completions fell to 7,584 from 8,072 while the average selling price edged up to GBP216,950 from GBP215,813.The lower level of completions was due to customer service initiatives via fewer sales outlets and later sales releases, the company explained."I am pleased that there are some clear early signs that our focus on increasing the quality and service delivered to our customers is beginning to bear fruit, with some encouraging improvements being made right across the business," said Chief Executive Dave Jenkinson.He added: "We enter the second half with our build programme well progressed, healthy rates of sale on site and an encouraging forward sales position."In the FTSE 250, Energean Oil & Gas rose 6.2% after saying it intends to purchase Edison Exploration & Production for USD750 million as initial consideration, with an additional USD100 million payable following first gas from the Cassiopea development, offshore Italy.Edison's portfolio of assets includes producing assets in Egypt, Italy, Algeria, the UK North Sea and Croatia, and development assets in Egypt, Italy and Norway. The enlarged group is expected to produce more than 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2021.Energean will fund the acquisition through a USD600 million committed bridge loan facility and up to USD265 million via a placing. Elsewhere on the Main Market, Bulmers cider maker C&C was up 3.2% as it made a "solid" start to its financial year, with trading in line with current market expectations.Additionally, the company said it is now now seeking inclusion in the FTSE UK Index Series, following the acquisition of Matthew Clark and Bibendum. Since this acquisition from alcohol distributor Conviviality in 2018 for a nominal sum, a majority of the Irish company's revenue now comes from the UK.In order to become eligible for FTSE index inclusion, C&C will be cancelling its Euronext Dublin listing. It's size would make C&C a shoe-in for the FTSE 250 at the next quarterly review.
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BurberryInternational AirlinesCoca-Cola HBCPersimmonC&C GroupEnergean Oil & Gas