INTU.L Share News (INTU)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Worries over US-Sino trade relations spilled over into a second consecutive week, weighing on London stocks on Monday as China insisted talks between the two powers have not broken down.Among the blue-chip losers on Monday were Vodafone and Evraz, while losses for Intu Properties and Metro Bank saw the FTSE 250 also trade in the red. The FTSE 100 was down 4.55 points, or 0.1%, at 7,198.74 Monday midday. The FTSE 250 index was down 109.17 points, or 0.6%, at 19,257.63, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.2% at 955.91.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.2% at 12,204.52. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.7% at 17,298.20. The Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,731.26.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.5% on Monday while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.7% lower."It's Groundhog Day yet again, with yet another day of US-China focused selling taking hold in early trade," said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG. After a bruising number of trading sessions last week following US President Donald Trump's threat of fresh tariffs on China, equities clawed back some losses on Friday amid hopes a trade deal might be reached as talks between the world's two largest economies continued into a second day.However, these hopes were dashed at the start of the new week. The Trump administration raised tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods to 25% from 10% on Friday.Further, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said the US is preparing to expand these tariffs to cover USD300 billion of Chinese products that are not already facing import taxes, or virtually everything imported from China.Chinese Vice Premier Liu He told reporters in Washington he remains cautiously optimistic, but insisted that a deal would require the Trump administration to agree to end the punitive tariffs it has imposed on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese goods.He said he did not believe the negotiations had broken down."With Trump angling for another four-year term, and the Chinese Foreign Minister promising that there will be 'no surrender' to foreign pressure, thus there is a very real threat that the current setback is the beginning of yet another drawn out phase of the trade war as they seek to show strength domestically," said IG's Mahony.Amid these fresh trade worries, stocks in the US are set for a downbeat session. The Dow Jones is called down 1.1%, as is the S&P 500, while the Nasdaq is pointed 1.5% lower. In the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May is facing further pressure from her party ahead of the European elections later in May. The YouGov study for The Times put the Tories on just 10% for the Euro-election, behind the Brexit Party on 34%, Labour on 16%, the Liberal Democrats on 15% and the Greens on 11%.Chancellor Philip Hammond's ministerial aide Huw Merriman said he expected a bleak set of results from the European contests, with both pro-EU and Brexit-supporting voters turning against them.Meanwhile, May has been urged to ditch Brexit talks with Labour and move to indicative votes by Cabinet Ministers.Hammond is said to be among those who have lost faith with the plan to strike a cross-party deal, which The Times reports he believes is a "false premise".The shift within the Conservatives appears to be matched by a hardening of the Labour Party stance, with Keir Starmer warning up to 150 Labour MPs would reject a Brexit deal that fails to include a confirmatory referendum.The pound was largely unchanged on Monday, quoted at USD1.3021 at midday from USD1.3030 late Friday.Fiona Cincotta at City Index said the pound's "lifeless" performance on Monday reflects the "unclear outcome" from cross party Brexit talks."The currency could be treading water for the better part of the week ahead of European elections," she added. Losses for Vodafone saw the FTSE 100 teeter in the red at midday. The telecommunications firm down 4.3% as it prepares to publish its annual results on Tuesday. Ahead of the release, The Sunday Times over the weekend reported the firm is set to reduce its dividend in order to invest in 5G mobile networks. Meanwhile, Russian steelmaker Evraz was down 1.8% after Morgan Stanley cut the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight.Among the risers, British Gas parent Centrica was up 1.7% after backing its annual guidance despite a series of challenges in the first few months of 2019.The UK tariff cap has led to a one-off GBP70 million impact. This has combined with warmer-than-normal weather and falling natural gas prices in the UK to hold back performance in the first four months of 2019.In addition, the Centrica Consumer business lost 20,000 customers in the first four months of 2019, as 234,000 customer accounts left in the UK. However, the FTSE 100 firm is reiterating 2019 guidance, including for adjusted operating cash flow between GBP1.8 billion and GBP2.0 billion, and net debt of between GBP3.0 billion and GBP3.5 billion. Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were up 1.4% and 1.7% respectively after HSBC raised the oil major to Buy from Hold. Shopping centre owner Intu Properties and high street lender Metro Bank were among the top fallers in the FTSE 250, dragging the mid-cap index into the red. JPMorgan cut its rating on Intu to Underweight from Neutral, sending the stock down 5.4%. Metro Bank, meanwhile, slipped 3.0% as it revealed plans for its GBP350 million equity raise are "well advanced".The lender said it has started its final talks with both existing shareholders and new investors and received positive feedback, with the equity raise to complete via a placing by the end of the second quarter of 2019.The bank said Monday it was responding to "recent press speculation". An article in the Financial Times on Friday last week said there had been some concern that the GBP350 million was not enough to support Metro Bank's capital position and it may be "forced to raise a larger amount".