8th May 2019 07:37
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set for another lower open on Wednesday as fears of a breakdown in US-China trade relations reverberate through markets. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 18.87 points lower at 7,241.60 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 120.17 points, or 1.6%, at 7,260.47 Tuesday."Asian markets followed Wall Street lower overnight as investors continued to fret over the unravelling of trade negotiations. For a third straight session investors are switching out of riskier assets and into havens such as government bonds, gold and the Japanese yen," explained Jasper Lawler at London Capital Group.US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would increase tariffs on USD200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% at the end of this week.Despite this, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit Washington for two days of negotiations starting Thursday.Liu's trip had initially been scheduled to start on Wednesday, but was put under question after Trump made his threat. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Tuesday downplayed the move, saying China believes it is "normal" for two sides to have differences.Focus now will be on the latest round of trade talks in Washington, said London Capital's Lawler, though investors "are not holding their breath" for any serious progress.In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended firmly in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 1.8%, the S&P 500 down 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite down 2.0%.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended down 1.5%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is off 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.2%.In early UK company news, Imperial Brands reported a "pleasing underlying tobacco performance" in the first half of its financial year, with the FTSE 100-listed cigarette maker on track to meet annual expectations. Revenue for the six months to March 31 rose 2.3% to GBP14.39 billion, while pretax profit jumped to GBP1.02 billion from just GBP600 million a year ago. This was due to administrative expenses falling to GBP574 million from GBP919 million, and a non-repeating GBP160 million charge booked a year ago relating to the administration of UK distributor Palmer & Harvey. Tobacco volumes fell 6.9% in the half to 115.2 billion stick equivalents, while Next Generation Product revenue - which includes offerings such as vapes and e-cigarettes - saw revenue more than triple to GBP148 million from just GBP42 million a year ago.Imperial boosted its interim dividend by 10% to 62.56 pence. Miner BHP Group confirmed it has been served with legal proceedings in relation to the 2015 Samarco dam failure in Brazil.The proceedings have been filed in the Business & Property Courts of Liverpool, England, BHP said. The Australian miner intends to defend the claim.Broadcaster ITV said its first-quarter performance was in line with forecasts, though total external revenue fell 4%. ITV Broadcast & Online revenue was down 7% at GBP489 million, and ITV Studios revenue was up 1% to GBP385 million. "We remain confident that we will deliver good organic revenue growth in ITV Studios over the full year and have already secured over GBP120m more revenue for 2019 than at the same time last year," said Chief Executive Carolyn McCall.ITV added that, as previously guided, the first half of 2019 is expected to be dented by economic and political uncertainty and its subsequent hit to demand for advertising, as well as planned investments and the absence of the football World Cup this year.Direct Line Insurance Group said it achieved "significant operational progress" despite a tough backdrop in the first quarter of the year. Gross written premiums fell 2.1% to GBP753.9 million with motor premiums among one of the largest drags on performance, down 4.2% to GBP386.9 million. "The motor market remained highly competitive, with market premiums failing to keep pace with claims inflation. Our response, as usual, was to focus on achieving our target loss ratios and continuing to improve pricing effectiveness," commented Penny James, chief financial officer and chief executive-designate.James added: "As we said at the full year results, 2019 is a pivotal year for the delivery of our technology transformation programme and I'm delighted that we've had a successful start with the launch of our new PCW focused brand Darwin and the start of the roll-out of our new Motor and Travel systems."Pub operator J Wetherspoon reported a rise in third quarter like-for-like sales and said it remains on track to deliver annual results in line with forecasts. For the 13 weeks to April 28, like-for-like sales rose 7.6% and total sales were up 8.4%. In the year-to-date, comparable sales rose 6.8% and total sales were up 7.6%. "We continue to anticipate a trading outcome for this financial year in line with our previous expectations," commented Chair Tim Martin.Building materials supplier SIG reported a fall in like-for-like sales in the first three months of 2019, weighed down by trading in the UK & Ireland. Total like-for-like sales fell 2.6% in the three months to April 30, with a 2.7% rise in mainland Europe offset by a 9.2% slump in the UK & Ireland. The UK & Ireland performance was hindered by SIG Distribution, which saw like-for-like sales drop 15%. SIG said this was intentional, with the unit bringing in a much lower, "though more focused", base of business, which is expected to result in improved profitability for the division. SIG said it remains confident its results for 2019 will be in line with management expectations despite challenging trading conditions.In the economic calendar on Wednesday, the Halifax house price index for the UK is at 0830 BST, while US mortgage applications numbers are released at 1200 BST.In a sign the trade spat between the world's two largest economies is taking its toll, data overnight showed China's exports dropped 2.7% in April from last year, performing worse than analysts had expected.China-US trade took a hit, dropping 16% in April. Chinese imports from the US dropped 30%, while exports fell 9.7%.Already released in the UK, the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed UK retail sales came in "below expectations" in April. Data covering the four weeks between March 31 and April 27 showed total sales up 4.1% on a year before in April, compared to a 3.1% decrease the same period a year ago. This was above both the 3-month and 12-month average increases of 1.2% and 1.4%, respectively."Retail sales were below expectation this month as the sunshine over the Easter weekend persuaded many to pursue recreational, rather than retail, activities. Department stores, as well as clothing and footwear shops, were harder hit by the warmer weather, while food-to-go fared much better from it," BRC Chief Executive Officer Helen Dickinson said.UK retail sales increased an annual 3.7% on a like-for-like basis in April, compared to a 4.2% decrease in the same month a year ago.
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Wetherspoon (J.D)SIGDirect LineITVImperial BrandsBHP Group