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(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are set to open lower on Friday on growing investor worries, as governments revealed plans to help tackle the coronavirus crisis.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 118.73 points, or 1.8%, lower at 6,586.70. The FTSE 100 index closed down 110.16 points, or 0.6%, at 6,705.43. The large-cap index ended lower after three straight days of gains.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2971 early Friday, firm from USD1.2922 at the London equities close Thursday. The euro was at USD1.1227 early Friday, firm from USD1.1185 late Thursday.
The European Central Bank meets next week to consider an action plan to deal with the mounting economic fallout from the coronavirus. But analysts question whether the bank have the monetary firepower to head off the risks resulting from the Covid-19 epidemic.
Christine Lagarde is facing her first major test as ECB president, as the central bank tries to navigate the economic storm unleashed by the spread of the coronavirus around the world.
At the start of the year, analysts had expected little immediate change in the ECB's approach under Lagarde's leadership after she launched a major review of the Frankfurt-based bank's policy instruments.
"Various governments around the world have revealed plans to help control the situation, but after a while dealers started to wonder how bad is the crisis if all these governments are so desperate to announce packages aimed to alleviating the problem. At a certain point, government intervention increases nervousness, and that is what we saw yesterday," said CMC Markets UK analyst David Madden.
"It was a painful day for stock markets yesterday as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus increased, so the old fears returned to the surface," added Madden.
World health officials have warned that countries are not taking the coronavirus crisis seriously enough, as outbreaks surged across Europe and in the US where medical workers sounded warnings over a "disturbing" lack of hospital preparedness.
Global markets tumbled again Thursday over concerns about the impact on the economy and as countries took more drastic steps to prevent contagion of a disease that has killed more than 3,300 people and infected nearly 100,000 in about 85 nations.
Cases soared in Italy, France, Greece and Iran, while a cruise ship was held off the coast of California to test passengers showing symptoms of the disease – echoing a harrowing episode in Japan several weeks ago that saw hundreds infected on a luxury liner.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 969.58 points, or 3.6%. The S&P 500 lost 3.4% and the Nasdaq Composite 3.1%.
Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY105.89 early Friday in London, down from JPY106.73 late Thursday.
The Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.7% in Tokyo. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 2.2%. The Shanghai Composite closed down 1.2%.
In early company news, Cineworld Group said it has not "observed any material impact" on its movie theatre admissions due to coronavirus, despite the release of the new James Bond movie postponed to November.
Following an increase in admissions in the first two months of the year, against the same period in the previous year, Cineworld said it continues to see "good" levels of admissions in all of its territories.
Looking ahead, the cinema operator noted that there can be no certainty as to the future impact of COVID-19, but it is taking measures to ensure that it is prepared its business for all possible eventualities.
London-based insurer Aviva has agreed to exit Indonesia by selling its entire shareholding in its joint venture PT Astra Aviva Life to its partner PT Astra International.
This transaction is expected to complete in the final quarter of 2020 and is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approval in Indonesia and the completion of Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd's acquisition of PT Bank Permata. The shareholders of Bangkok Bank approved the acquisition of Permata Bank on Thursday, Aviva noted.
AstraZeneca said the phase III Danube trial for Imfinzi and Imfinzi plus tremelimumab did not meet the primary endpoints of improving overall survival versus standard-of-care chemotherapy in patients with stage IV bladder cancer.
"The results from this trial will inform our comprehensive phase III development programme in bladder cancer," said Executive Vice President Of Oncology R&D Jose Baselga.
Imfinzi is currently approved for patients with locally advanced or metastatic bladder cancer previously treated with platinum-containing chemotherapy in 15 countries, including the US.
"AstraZeneca remains committed to addressing unmet needs in bladder cancer and the potential for immunotherapy to improve outcomes for these patients," added Baselga.
Among those reporting results, Murray International Trust said it underperformed its benchmark in 2019, with net asset value total return at 12% compared to the 21% returned by its benchmark - a combination of 40% of FTSE World UK Index and 60% of FTSE World ex UK Index.
Murray reported NAV per share as at the end of 2019 of 1,190.0p compared to 1,107.8p reported on the same day a year earlier.
The investment company said it will be paying a dividend of 53.5 pence for 2019, up from 51.5p paid a year earlier.
Looking forward, Murray said it will continue to invest in opportunities across the globe that are not wholly tied to the developed economies and markets.
In addition, Murray appointed Simon Fraser as an independent non-executive director from the start of May.
Fraser had sat on a number of listed company boards in the past, including Barclays and Ashmore. He is currently chair of McInroy & Wood Ltd, the Investor Forum and the independent research boutique TS Lombard. He is also on the board of Fidelity Funds SICAV, Treasurer of the Kings Fund and a trustee of the Abbotsford Trust.
Alliance Trust reported a 21% surge in its NAV per share, which stood at 875.9p as at December 31 versus 723.6p a year ago. The investment company said its total return of 24% outperformed its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index (MSCI ACWI), which returned 22%.
Alliance Trust said it will be paying a 13.96p dividend for the year, up 3.0% from 13.55p paid the year before.
"During 2019, we completed the simplification of the trust by selling our subsidiary, Alliance Trust Savings, and virtually all our remaining non-core assets. As a result, we are now fully focused on global equities, something the Board has been working towards for the last four years," said Chair Gregor Stewart.
Looking ahead, the trust added that it expects its new streamlined structure to lead to continued improvement in returns to shareholders.
The economic events calendar on Friday has the US jobs report for February at 1330 GMT.
In commodities, gold was quoted at USD1,670.63 an ounce early Friday, higher than USD1,658.87 late Thursday. Brent oil was at USD49.63 a barrel, down from USD50.91.
By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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