2nd Sep 2019 07:49
(Alliance News) - Stocks in London were set for to open slightly higher Monday, after a slew of tariffs imposed by the US government on Chinese goods came into effect on Sunday but no new trade-war blow-ups occurred.
For the first time, the tariffs targeted Chinese consumer goods, including televisions, books, nappies, and sports shoes. The US move is the latest in a year-long trade war that is slowing the world economy.
In early corporate news in London, AstraZeneca reported positive results from two separate cardiovascular drug trials. Dechra Pharmaceuticals reported a "strong" set of full-year results with profit and revenue growing. Embattled fund Woodford Patient Capital Trust hired long-time investment management industry executive Jane Tufnell to its board.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 2.02 points higher at 7,209.20. The blue-chip index closed up 0.3% at 7,207.18 Friday.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2166 at early Monday, down from USD1.2178 late Friday.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index was 0.4% lower early Monday. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 0.6% lower.
"Trade tensions dominated the headlines last month and the spat between the US and China is likely to remain at the forefront of traders as some new tariffs on Chinese imports kicked in yesterday," said CMC Markets' David Madden.
Madden continued: "Tariffs on USD112 billion worth of Chinese imports took effect yesterday. The US plans to impose tariffs on an additional USD188 billion worth of Chinese imports between now and mid-December, but at the same time, trade talks are due to continue this month. It seems that Trump is keeping the pressure on Beijing, but at the same time the US president is open to the possibility of a deal. When it comes to the trade dispute, it is a two way street, and China have started to impose tariffs on some of the USD75 billion worth of US imports it recently earmarked for levies.
"At the end of last week, European equity markets mostly finished on a positive note after the Chinese government said it won’t hit back at the US in terms of the trade dispute," added Madden.
In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended mixed before a long holiday weekend, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 0.2% and the S&P 500 up 0.1%. But the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.1% lower.
US markets are shut for the Labor Day holiday on Monday.
AstraZeneca reported positive results from the Brilinta trial and Farxiga trials.
Brilinta reduced the risk for the composite of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke by 10% compared with aspirin alone, Astra said.
Farxiga on top of standard of care reduced both the incidence of cardiovascular death and the worsening of heart failure, Astra noted in a separate announcement. The company had reported topline results from the Farxiga study in August, releasing detailed results on Monday.
Micro Focus International Executive Chair Kevin Loosemore has been additionally appointed as non-executive chair of banknote and passport printer De La Rue. Loosemore will become the chair designate of De La Rue on Monday before taking up the role on October 1. Loosemore will step down as chair of IRIS Software Group as a result of the De La Rue appointment, but remain in his role at Micro Focus.
Micro Focus also said Darren Roos will step down as non-executive director, effective immediately. Roos represented Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the Micro Focus board but the period for HPE to appoint directors has expired, Micro Focus said.
Dechra Pharmaceuticals said it continued to "outperform almost all" markets in which it operates.
In the year ended June 30, Dechra recorded operating profit of GBP39.0 million, 14% higher than the year before. Revenue grew 18% year on year to GBP481.8 million.
Dechra upped its total dividend for the year by 24% to 31.6 pence from 25.5p.
"The group has delivered another strong performance throughout the financial year. We have continued to outperform in almost all markets in which we operate and strategically it has also been an excellent year," said Dechra Chief Exectuive Ian Page.
Woodford Patient Capital Trust has hired Jane Tufnell as independent non-executive director as the Neil Woodford-led investment trust continues to deal with the fallout from its open-ended sister fund freezing redemptions in June.
At the beginning of June, Woodford took the decision to suspend withdrawals from his equity income fund due to "an increased level of redemptions", with the fund now needing time to "reposition" its portfolio invested in unquoted and less liquid stocks into more liquid investments.
Tufenll co-founded Ruffer Investment Management.
Susan Searle, chair of Woodford Patient, said Tufnell's fund management expertise and familiarity with investment trusts will bring "valuable experience" to Woodford Patient.
Old Mutual said it was "pleased" with first half 2019 results, in a very difficult environment.
The Anglo-South African financial services firm kept its dividend for the six months to June flat at 45 rand cents. It reported a 44% rise in pretax profit to ZAR7.23 billion, with revenue surging 48% to ZAR100.22 billion.
This was boosted, Old Mutual said, by a significant rise in the non-banking investment return.
Old Mutual's results from operations were up 2% to ZAR4.51 billion, with adjusted headline earnings rising 10% to ZAR5.21 billion. Funds under management at the half's end rose 5% from December to ZAR108.09 billion.
Turning to Brexit, Boris Johnson has dug in for trench warfare over Brexit as Tory rebels were put on notice they face losing the whip and being barred from standing for the party if they vote against the government.
The UK prime minister decided to get tough with rebels as he faced a torrid week which will be dominated by Commons clashes over his EU withdrawal stance.
With opponents of a no-deal Brexit set to try to seize control of the parliamentary agenda on Tuesday, senior Tories like heavyweight grandees Philip Hammond and David Gauke were warned to back the government.
A senior source from the Tory whips office said: "The whips are telling Conservative MPs a very simple message – if they fail to vote with the government on Tuesday they will be destroying the government's negotiating position and handing control of Parliament to Jeremy Corbyn.
"Any Conservative MP who does this will have the whip withdrawn and will not stand as Conservative candidates in an election."
Meanwhile, a flurry of manufacturing purchasing managers' index readings are due. Scores from Ireland, Japan and China are already out. Still to come are Germany at 0855 BST, the eurozone at 0900 BST and the UK at 0930 BST.
The Caxin China manufacturing PMI reading for August was 50.4, up from 49.9 in July and back in expansion territory.
Japan's government said on Monday investment by the nation's manufacturers dropped 6.9% from a year earlier to JPY3.6 trillion, about USD34 billion, in the April-to-June period, the first decline in two years amid economic uncertainty caused by a trade war between China and the US.
Overall corporate investment by all non-financial sectors climbed 1.9% to JPY10.9 trillion in the quarter, significantly slowing from 6.1% in the previous period, Japan's Finance Ministry said.
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