Ascential Share News (ASCL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Sentiment in Europe was soft at the start of the week, with the FTSE 100 lower at midday on Monday after US President Trump switched his focus to Iran from his ever-escalating tariff threats toward China. Airlines were among the worst performers in the blue-chip index following budget carrier Ryanair's first-quarter results, while Ascential was the biggest loser in the FTSE 250.The FTSE 100 index was down 0.4%, or 31.92 points, at 7,646.87 Monday midday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 0.6%, or 114.32 points lower, at 20,811.36. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.4% at 1,090.16.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.4% at 12,959.79, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.5% at 18,954.93, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.4% at 12,425.25.In mainland Europe on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.6% and 0.2% respectively at midday."The FTSE is leading European markets lower, with Donald Trump driving risk aversion amid talk of further tariffs on China and war with Iran," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.As markets were rattled on Friday by Trump's announcement he is "ready to go" to USD500 billion in import tariffs on Chinese goods, the US president over the weekend ramped up his rhetoric towards another country, Iran.Following comments from Iranian President Hassan Rowhani on war and a threat to blockade Gulf oil, Trump addressed the Iranian leader in an all-capitalized message on Twitter."NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE US AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," he wrote.Trump drew criticism from his European allies in May when he pulled out of the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Tehran and announced a resumption of US economic sanctions, which are still being restored.Earlier Sunday, Rowhani had warned Trump not to escalate tensions with Iran: "Americans should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace...likewise a war would be the mother of all wars."Markets in New York are set for a flat to lower open on Monday, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 seen unchanged but the tech-heavy Nasdaq set to fall 0.3%.Before the US open on Monday, oilfield services firm Halliburton reported second-quarter earnings. The company's bottom line came in at USD511 million, or USD0.58 per share. This compares with USD28 million, or USD0.03 per share, in last year's second quarter. Revenue for the quarter rose 24% to USD6.15 billion from USD4.96 billion last year.After the New York close Monday, Google parent Alphabet reports. Later in the week come results from the likes of Amazon, McDonald's, Twitter and Boeing.In the economic calendar on Monday, the Chicago Fed national activity index is at 1330 BST, with US existing home sales at 1500 BST. Eurozone consumer confidence is also at 1500 BST.In London, advertising agency WPP was up 2.2% after Sky News on Saturday reported the company is in early stage discussions to sell a minority 20% stake in its Chinese operations to Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and China Media Capital Holdings. Sources told the news agency that the talks could take several months to conclude and is expected to value WPP China at between USD2 billion and USD2.5 billion.GlaxoSmithKline was up 0.8% after the Financial Times late Friday said several top-ten investors" have been urging the drugmaker's board to spin off its Consumer division.According to a newspaper source, Chairman Philip Hampton has been in talks over the possible creation of a stand-alone pharmaceuticals and vaccines company.Towards the bottom of the FTSE 100 were airlines, with easyJet down 1.6% and International Consolidated Airlines down 1.6%. In the FTSE 250, Wizz Air was down 1.8%.The companies were suffering from a negative read-across after budget carrier Ryanair reported a fall in first quarter profit and a cautious outlook for the second quarter. Ryanair was down 4.1% at midday.For the three months ended June 30, the Irish airline recorded profit after tax of EUR319 million, down from EUR397 million a year ago, on revenue of EUR2.08 billion and EUR1.91 billion respectively. The budget carrier held its annual profit after tax guidance range of EUR1.25 billion to EUR1.35 billion, but noted that this is heavily dependent on second-quarter fares, crew strikes, continuing air traffic control staff shortages, the absence of unforeseen security events, and no negative Brexit developments.However, despite holding its full-year guidance Ryanair did say that second quarter fares are now only expected to rise by approximately 1%, previously guided to grow 4%. This is due to "the recent weaker fare environment" and the expected hit from crew strikes on forward pricing."The airline has certainly done a very good job so far at sweating its assets and making money from passengers beyond the price of an airline ticket. Yet first quarter results would suggest it needs to do more to cope with higher oil prices, higher pilot costs, and yet another bout of strikes," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.In the FTSE 250, Ascential was the worst performer, down 4.3%.The business events organiser recorded a pretax profit of GBP23.1 million for the six months ended June 30, down 14% from GBP26.8 million last year. Revenue, however, rose to GBP188.9 million for the half from GBP165.1 million. Ascential's group margin dipped to 32.0% from 36.8%. Exhibitions & Festivals margins fell to 49.7% from 55.5%, while information services unit recorded margins of 25.1% versus 28.8%.Plastic products maker RPC was up 1.9% after the Telegraph over the weekend said Standard Life Aberdeen, a major shareholder in the plastic products maker, believes the company's low share price could spark bid interest from overseas rivals and private equity firms.While the company was among the best performers in the FTSE 250 on Monday, its share price remains down 12% since the start of 2018.Elsewhere on the London Main Market, retailer McColl's Retail Group dropped 12% after supply chain disruption hit its first-half results.For the 26 weeks ended May 28, McColl's reported pretax profit of GBP2.3 million, nearly halved from the GBP4.5 million posted last year. First half like-for-likes sales were down 2.7% due to supply chain disruption caused by the demise of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey.Revenue, however, saw double-digit growth, rising by 19% to GBP601.2 million from GBP504.8 million the prior year. This was driven by the GBP117.0 million acquisition of 300 stores from The Co-operative Group.The fall in interim profit was attributed to costs relating to the collapse of P&H, as well as health and safety breach fines and an unprofitable store closure programme.