11th Jun 2019 08:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened higher on Tuesday as US-China trade war concerns eased and chances of a US rate cut rose, while mid-cap retailer Ted Baker fell sharply after issuing a profit warning. The FTSE 100 was up 35.80 points, or 0.5%, at 7,411.34. The FTSE 250 was up 37.91 points, or 0.2%, at 19,347.51. The AIM All-Share was up 0.78 points, or 0.1%, at 944.16.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.3% at 12,548.90. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,333.55, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,791.25."Equities are continuing their remarkable relief rally as investors put trade war concerns to one side and double down on bets the Federal Reserve will ride to the rescue," noted Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson. In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.3% and 1.0% respectively. Financial markets in Germany reopened after being closed for a public holiday on Monday. On the London Stock Exchange, miners were among the best blue-chip performers amid a rise in copper prices. The metal was quoted up 1.5% on the day Tuesday.Antofagasta was up 2.5%, Rio Tinto up 2.5%, Glencore up 2.3%, and Anglo American up 1.8%.Halma rose 1.0% after the hazard detection and life protection systems said it expects to make "good progress" in its new financial year, following double-digit earnings growth in its recently ended one.Halma reported revenue growth of 13% in the year to the end of March to GBP1.21 billion from GBP1.08 billion a year before, in line with market expectations. On an organic constant currency basis, revenue climbed by 10%.Pretax profit rose 20% to GBP206.7 million from GBP171.9 million, slightly behind consensus forecast of GBP207.8 million. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit increased by 15% to GBP245.7 million, ahead of analysts' expectations of GBP243.1 million and within Halma's guidance range of between GBP240.1 million and GBP253.4 million.Conversely, Hargreaves Lansdown was the worst large-cap performer, down 1.0% as investors continue to punish the fund supermarket for being one of the most prominent backers of star fund manager Neil Woodford. Hargreaves shares are down 16% in the wake of Woodford's decision to suspended withdrawals from his flagship equity fund at the start of last week.In the FTSE 250 index, Saga was the best performer, up 4.3% after the over-50s holiday and insurance specialist said it has formed a long-term savings partnership with Goldman Sachs to launch new products together from autumn 2019.The partnership will see Saga team with the US investment bank's Marcus savings account product, aimed at returning Saga to its "heritage of delivering high-quality products and services to its customers", Saga said.Saga will leave the midcap index when the latest FTSE Russell index review changes come into effect on June 24. At the other end of the FTSE 250, Ted Baker was the worst performer, down 26% after the fashion retailer said it expects annual profit to decline as trading conditions have been "extremely difficult" in the year-to-date.The retailer now anticipates its underlying pretax profit for the year to the end of January 25, 2020, to be in the range of GBP50 million to GBP60 million. In financial 2019, which ended on January 26, Ted Baker reported pretax profit before exceptional items of GBP63.0 million. The stock is down 35% so far in 2019 as the company seeks to move past well-documented misconduct issues which resulted in the departure of founder Ray Kelvin earlier this year. The pound was quoted at USD1.2675 on Tuesday, flat against USD1.2680 at the London equities close Monday, ahead of UK unemployment data at 0930 BST. "Following the marked drop in the number of people employed in February and March, the headline employment figure in April might well report the first decline on a three-month basis since October 2017. This notwithstanding, the headline unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 3.8%," said Daiwa Capital Markets. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 2.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.8%.US President Donald Trump expects to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit this month in Japan, warning that unless the sides reach a trade deal, he will raise tariffs on the final tranche of Chinese products."We are expected to meet," Trump said Monday, in an extensive interview on CNBC. "If we do, that's fine, and if we don't, that's fine." He added: "If we don't make a deal, we will be raising the tariffs."Trump also warned Mexico that tariffs will be reinstated if Mexico's legislative body does not approve an unrevealed, but "very important" part of the US-Mexico deal.The economic events calendar on Tuesday has US producer prices at 1330 BST.
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