Costain Share News (COST)

(Alliance News) - London's FTSE 100 dimmed quickly after bright start to the week to trade more than 10 points lower by midday, unable to extend an early boost from vaccine hopes and global M&A activity.

The FTSE 100 index was down 11.79 points, or 0.2%, at 6,020.30 Monday midday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 69.12 points, or 0.4%, at 17,624.99. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.5% at 958.47.

The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.4% at 599.44. The Cboe 250 was up 0.3% at 15,028.24, while the Cboe Small Companies down 0.5% at 9,478.91.

In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.1% and down 0.1% respectively by early Monday afternoon.

"European stock markets have pared earlier gains to sit a little flat on Monday, with the positive vaccine news doing little to deliver a sustained boost," said Craig Erlam at Oanda.

European stocks had been lifted at the start of trade by news that AstraZeneca has resumed clinical trials in the UK of its Covid-19 vaccine after a green light from the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority.

Earlier in September, the company paused the vaccine trials across the world after a UK volunteer developed an unexplained illness. The drugs company is developing the coronavirus vaccine, AZD1222, alongside Oxford University.

AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate is one of nine around the world currently in late-stage phase 3 human trials. On Thursday last week, AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said at a media event that a Covid-19 vaccine could still be available by as early as the year end, despite the clinical trial's pause.

AstraZeneca shares were down 0.8% in London at midday.

Oanda's Erlam said: "Don't get me wrong, it's a relief that AstraZeneca/Oxford University trials have resumed, and it's great to hear that the Pfizer CEO is optimistic that their vaccine with BioNTech could be ready for approval by the end of next month, and distribution this year, but it's nothing people aren't now expecting."

Moving on from Europe, Wall Street is on course for a positive start to the week, with the Dow Jones called up 0.7%, the S&P 500 up 0.9% and the Nasdaq up 1.1%.

Oracle shares were up 8.2% pre-market in New York after Microsoft said Sunday its offer to buy TikTok was rejected, leaving Oracle as the sole remaining bidder ahead of a looming deadline for the Chinese-owned video app to sell or shut down its US operations.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA shares gained 5.6% in pre-market trade on its USD40 billion deal to buy UK-based chip designer Arm from Softbank. If approved, the deal will be one of the largest acquisitions anywhere in the world this year and will propel NVIDIA to the forefront of the semiconductor sector.

In London, gold miners were among the worst performers in the FTSE 100 as the price of the precious metal's price slipped.

Gold was quoted at USD1,942.33 an ounce on Monday, down from USD1,950.07 on Friday.

Fresnillo was down 6.0% at midday, with precious metals mining peer Polymetal International down 3.7%.

Brent oil was trading at USD39.54 a barrel, lower than USD40.22 late Friday.

In the FTSE 250, G4S shot up 22% to 177.50 pence as Garda World Security announced a possible GBP3 billion takeover offer for the security services firm.

Montreal-based GardaWorld announced a possible 190 pence per share offer for G4S, which is a 30% premium to its 145.90p closing price on Friday. GardaWorld noted that the potential offer is also an 86% premium to the G4S's share price on June 15, when it first made an approach to the company's board.

"GardaWorld's attempts to engage with G4S's board have now been summarily dismissed or ignored on three occasions. Consequently, GardaWorld now encourages G4S's shareholders to mandate their board's engagement in collaborative discussions towards a transaction that would be of clear and immediate benefit to G4S's shareholders, customers, employees and members of the company's pension schemes," GardaWorld said.

JD Wetherspoon dipped 3.0% after saying trading was "very quiet" during this past weekend, denouncing newspaper claims that "Britons have promised to run riot" before new tighter government restrictions kick-in.

"In fact, trade was very quiet over the weekend, as the public weighed up the evidence about the alleged dangers of going out - Wetherspoon sales were 22.5% below the equivalent Saturday last year," Chair Tim Martin said.

The coronavirus "rule of six" came into force in England on Monday, meaning any social gatherings of more than six people will break the law.

Wetherspoon said it saw 32 million customer visits to its 861 open pubs in the 10 weeks since July 4. It reported 66 positive tests for Covid-19 among its 41,564 employees during the period. Wetherspoon has invested around GBP15 million in its social distancing and hygiene measures, it said.

Elsewhere in London, Costain fell 8.9% as revenue fell during a first half of 2020 hit by Covid-19 and issues with two of its long-standing contracts.

In the six months to June 30, the infrastructure construction firm swung to a pretax loss of GBP92.3 million from profit of GBP8.4 million a year earlier. Revenue dropped 23% annually to GBP461.3 million from GBP599.2 million.

"The first half of 2020 has been a challenging period due to the impact of Covid-19 and working to resolve issues with two long-standing contracts," Costain explained.

The pound was quoted at USD1.2864 Monday midday, higher than USD1.2783 at the London equities close on Friday.

Parliament on Monday finds itself in familiar territory – arguing about Brexit – with threats of rebellion and resignations over UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's controversial plan for a new law that will break his EU divorce treaty.

The House of Commons holds its first debate and vote over the bombshell new bill from late afternoon, despite a call from Brussels for it to be withdrawn by the end of the month.

The contentious legislation, unveiled last week, would override the divorce deal the UK struck with the EU last year in several key areas related to Northern Ireland. It would see London unilaterally regulate UK trade and state aid within the British province, ignoring the EU treaty which gives Brussels a continuing say over Northern Ireland's trading relationship.

If the law passes in the coming weeks, Brussels has warned it could scupper ongoing trade deal talks and threatened court action, leaving the prospects of an orderly Brexit in tatters.

The euro traded at USD1.1870 at midday, higher versus USD1.1836 late Friday.

Eurozone industrial production continued to grow month-on-month in July, though the pace of expansion slowed somewhat and output remained down on a year before.

Figures from Eurostat on Monday showed industrial production rose by 4.1% on a monthly basis in both the eurozone and EU in July. In June, output had risen by 9.5% in the euro area and 9.6% in the wider EU.

Against the yen, the dollar was lower, quoted at JPY105.94, down from JPY106.18 late Friday in London.

Yoshihide Suga has been elected leader of Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party, paving the way for him to become the country's next prime minister after outgoing leader Shinzo Abe abruptly announced in late August that he was stepping down for health reasons.

By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

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