21st Jun 2019 07:49
(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are called start Friday a little lower, as tensions between the US and Iran continue to simmer.Rail ticket seller Trainline priced its initial public offering, while Sports Direct International is spoiling for another board-level fight at an investee. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 9.1 points, or 0.1%, lower at 7,415.34 on Friday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 20.90 points, or 0.3%, at 7,424.44 on Thursday.The pound is quoted at USD1.2684 early Friday, down marginally from USD1.2693 at the London equities close on Thursday. The euro was trading at USD1.1284, up from USD1.1273 late Thursday.The tension between the US and Iran continued to draw attention as US President Donald Trump appeared to keep his options open for retaliation following the shooting down of a US drone by Tehran.Speaking from the White House, Trump answered a question on whether military retaliation was likely in response with "you're going to find out. They made a very big mistake."Trump then, however, appeared to step back from escalating it further."Somebody under the command of that country made a mistake...I find it hard to believe it was intentional. Could have been someone who was loose and stupid," Trump said, expressing what he described as a "feeling". He added that "it was a very foolish move".The New York Times also reported that Trump had initially approved military action of a handful of targets, before rowing back on the decision.Citing officials, the newspaper stated Trump had approved the attack on some targets such as radar and missile batteries with planes in the air and ships in position. No missiles were fired, however, with the order delivered to stand down. In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 0.9%, the S&P 500 up 1.0% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.8%.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index is down 1.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.6%.Locally, sentiment will be driven by continued interpretations of the increasingly dovish stance taken by the BoE following its decision on Thursday to hold firm at its 0.75% interest rate. "The Bank of England kept rates on hold, and downgraded their growth forecast for the second quarter to zero," CMC Markets UK Chief Market Analysts Michael Hewson said. "All the pre rate meeting hawkishness that we heard from the likes of external MPC member Michael Saunders and chief economist Andy Haldane was notable by its absence."The pre-Brexit pop for the first quarter appears to have given way to a pullback in economic activity while the political theatricals in Westminster distracts politicians from the business of assuaging business concerns about how events will play out between now and October," Hewson added. "Consumers also appear to have become more cautious, with retail sales declining for the second month in a row in May."On Thursday, UK retail sales growth slowed sharper than expected in May. On the year prior, May headline retail sales grew 2.3%. This was in contrast to the 5.1% growth in April and the 2.7% forecast by economists. Excluding fuel, retail sales growth slowed to 2.2% in May from 4.7% in April. Economists had anticipated it to slow to 2.5%."As expected, the strength of retail sales in the first quarter continued to unwind in May," Capital Economics UK Economist Andrew Wishart said."Small downward revisions to sales over the past few months left annual growth in sales a little weaker than expected at 2.3%, down from a peak of 6.7% in March," Wishart added. "That's the weakest since October 2018, and back in line with average annual growth in sales since the financial crisis following unusually strong sales growth over the past six months."In UK company news early Friday, online train ticket retailer Trainline announced it will price its initial public offer at 350 pence per share which gives the company a market capitalisation of GBP1.68 billion.In late May, the Financial Times had reported people "briefed in the matter" believed the owners of Trainline were targeting a valuation of GBP1.5 billion. Unconditional trading in Trainline shares is expected to begin next Wednesday. Sports Direct International pushed for troubled five-a-side football pitch operator Goals Soccer Centres to appoint an independent investigation into the VAT treatment issues which have hit the firm and pushed it into a series of profit warnings. Sports Direct - a substantial shareholders in Goals - said it understood that Goals had not appointed independent advisers in this investigation. Mike Ashley-controlled Sports Direct urged Goals to appoint Kroll to produce an independent report for which the FTSE 250-listed sporting goods retailer has agreed to cover the costs. In addition, Sports Direct cautioned it had experienced a "loss of confidence" in the board at Goals. Consequently, it will vote against the reappointment of the board next Friday due to its "perceived lack of transparency".Amongst UK blue chips, safety and testing firm Halma agreed to buy fire & evacuation systems supplier Ampac Group for AUD135 million, equivalent to GBP74 million. The deal - expected to close before the end of August - will see Halma expand its business in Australia and New Zealand. In the financial year ended June 2018, Ampac generated AUD7.5 million in operating profit from AUD57 million revenue. "This is an exciting acquisition that extends our geographic footprint and strengthens the intellectual property of our fire detection businesses," Halma Chief Executive Officer Andrew Williams said. "Ampac brings a strong brand, robust technology and well-established routes to market, and has been a partner for our business for several decades," Williams added. "Its highly complementary technologies will strengthen our value proposition, and it is well positioned to benefit from Halma's Growth Enablers."Still to come the economic calendar on Friday, flash purchasing managers' indices are due from France at 0815 BST, Germany at 0830 BST and the eurozone at 0900 BST. In the US, flash manufacturing and services PMI are also due at 1445 BST.The US PMI prints are expected to be impacted by the trade tension between the US and China as well as neighbouring Mexico. "This is expected to feed into a weak US flash manufacturing PMI later this afternoon," CMC's Hewson said. "Expectations are for an unchanged reading of 50.5 in May, however don't be surprised if the indicator contracts below 50. The services sector is expected to improve modestly to 51, from 50.9."
Related Shares:
HalmaSports DirectGOAL.L