Ascential Share News (ASCL)

(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 lost some momentum as Monday's session drew to a close, with early gains eroded, as focus turns to central bank meetings and the outcome of the Conservative leadership election.The FTSE 100 index closed up 6.23 points, or 0.1%, at 7,514.93, having traded as high as 7,549.71 in morning trade. The FTSE 250 ended up 36.35 points, or 0.1%, at 19,608.01, and the AIM All-Share closed up 1.97 points, or 0.2%, at 916.25.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.1% at 12,733.69, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.2% at 17,542.97, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.2% at 11,062.39.In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 0.3%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended 0.2% higher."Markets are struggling to hold early gains as investors start to fret about key upcoming central bank meetings. Aside from some gains for crude oil stocks as energy prices rise thanks to the situation in the Gulf, the main focus on an otherwise quiet day is what the ECB and the Fed will do," said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG."European markets are certainly in need of something to get the moving, as their struggle to move higher over the past two sessions looks to be running out of steam," he added. The European Central Bank meets this week, announcing its latest monetary policy decision on Thursday, while the US Federal Reserve meets next week. The US central bank is widely tipped to cut interest rates by 25 basis points at that meeting.This comes as US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to lower rates."It is far more costly for the Federal Reserve to cut deeper if the economy actually does, in the future, turn down!" Trump said on Twitter on Monday. "Very inexpensive, in fact productive, to move now."The euro stood at USD1.1217 at the European equities close Monday ahead of the ECB's meeting later this week, soft against USD1.1225 at the same time on Friday.The pound, meanwhile, was quoted at USD1.2486 at the London equities close Monday, down compared to USD1.2507 at the close on Friday.Sterling slipped amid "mild nervousness" ahead of Tuesday's Conservative leadership results, said Connor Campbell at Spreadex."Those nerves could deepen as the week goes on, and Boris Johnson starts to make his mark as prime minister, namely by forming what will likely be a hard Brexit-leaning Cabinet," he added.Johnson is widely expected to defeat Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday to become the next UK prime minister.In a sign of the difficulties he will face in uniting a bitterly divided Tory party, Alan Duncan - an outspoken opponent of Johnson - has quit as a Foreign Office minister before the incoming prime minister takes office.His resignation will not be the last, with Chancellor Philip Hammond and Justice Secretary David Gauke having already confirmed they will quit rather than be sacked by Johnson.May will tender her resignation to the Queen after taking Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons on Wednesday afternoon, with the new Tory leader set to enter Number 10 soon after.Away from the leadership contest, May attended a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee on Monday over the seizure by Iran of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf.The confrontation between Britain and Iran began earlier this month when the Iranian oil carrier Grace 1 was impounded off the British territory of Gibraltar for allegedly violating EU sanctions with its Syria-bound cargo.The tensions in the Middle East were giving oil a boost, quoted at USD63.20 a barrel at the London equities close Monday from USD62.32 late Friday.This helped oil majors, with BP closing up 1.0% and Royal Dutch Shell 'A' shares rising 0.7%, with 'B' shares 0.8% higher.In other commodities, gold was quoted at USD1,426.40 an ounce at the London equities close Monday against USD1,429.80 at the close on Friday.Stocks in New York were mixed at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones down 0.1%, the S&P 500 index up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rising 0.4%.While the start of the week is quiet in terms of US company reports, things pick up as the week progresses with earnings from soft drinks giant Coca-Cola, aerospace firm Boeing, online retail company Amazon and Google-owner Alphabet all due in the coming days. In London on Monday, Whitbread's 4.2% put pressure on the FTSE 100. This was after the Premier Inn owner completed its GBP2.5 billion capital return programme and said no further capital returns are planned.Whitbread will return GBP2 billion to shareholders through a 40.2 million share tender offer at 4,972 pence per share, completing its GBP2.5 billion return programme.The offer becomes unconditional on Tuesday this week and was oversubscribed. No further capital returns are planned, as the company has hit its GBP2.5 billion target."Given the stock is still up over 12% from when the enormous capital return was announced, today's move seems like profit taking," commented David Madden at CMC Markets.The mid-cap FTSE 250 index performed better than its blue-chip peer as constituent Ted Baker surged 14% on a report of a possible buyout.The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the upmarket fashion retailer's founder Ray Kelvin could back a private equity buyout of the company.The newspaper reported that Kelvin, who resigned as chief executive over claims he presided over a culture of "forced hugging", would support a buyout that would take the company private under existing management. Kelvin owns around a third of Ted Baker.Metro Bank was the second biggest gainer in the index, up 6.7% after confirming it has entered talks to dispose of its loan portfolio. Sky News on Sunday reported that the bank was closing in on a GBP500.0 million deal to sell its mortgage portfolio to US hedge fund Cerebus Capital Management.Ascential shares rose 4.0% after the events organiser reported a "strong" revenue rise in line with expectations in the first half of 2019, following growth across all of its divisions. In the six months to June 30, the company's pretax profit rose 32% year-on-year to GBP30.5 million from GBP23.1 million on a revenue of GBP236.2 million. Assisted by "margin improvement" in its Cannes Lions festival, the marketing segment saw a 25% revenue rise to GBP100.5 million from GBP80.7 million in 2018. Capital & Regional closed down 4.9% after a fire broke out at its shopping centre in north-east London. The UK-focused shopping centre operator confirmed a fire had begun at The Mall in Walthamstow with the centre being evacuated and the fire service at the building."Our immediate priority is site, customer and staff safety," Capital & Regional said. "We will provide further information once the fire has been extinguished and we have fully assessed the situation."In the UK corporate calendar on Tuesday, there are annual results from online trading platform IG Group and Imperial Leather soap maker PZ Cussons, while interim results are due from insurer Beazley and AIM-listed tonic water maker Fevertree Drinks.In the economic calendar, the Confederation of British Industry's Industrial Trends Survey is at 1100 BST and the Redbook index in the US at 1355 BST, followed by eurozone consumer confidence at 1500 BST.At 0800 BST, Kantar's UK grocery share figures for the twelve weeks to July 14 will be released.London Close is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. 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