Intertek Group Share News (ITRK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened marginally lower on Tuesday, after US President Donald Trump said he would likely go ahead with raising tariffs on Chinese goods, while mid-cap travel firm Thomas Cook fell sharply after warning on profit and skipping its dividend.The FTSE 100 index was down 6.10 points at 7,029.90. The FTSE 250 was down 70.06 points, or 0.4%, at 18,649.06, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.31 point at 931.05. The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.1% at 11,937.50, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.3% at 16,800.50, and the Cboe Small Companies was flat at 11,393.40.In Paris the CAC 40 was up 0.1%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.2%. "The positivity that started the week was nowhere to be seen on Tuesday, with Trump pouring more fuel on the trade war fire while unleashing some unhelpful Brexit comments," said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.Trump said on Monday he expects to move ahead with hiking tariffs to 25% from the current 10% on USD200 billion of Chinese imports.Trump told the Wall Street Journal it was "highly unlikely" he would hold off on the increase. "The only deal would be China has to open up their country to competition from the US," Trump told the Journal. "As far as other countries are concerned, that's up to them."The comments come four days ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If negotiations between the two go badly, Trump said he would also put tariffs on Chinese imports not now subject to duties."If we don't make a deal, then I'm going to put the USD267 billion additional on," at a tariff rate of either 10 or 25%, Trump said, adding this could include 10% tariffs on Apple's iPhones and laptops imported from China.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.6% on Tuesday. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed flat, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed down 0.3%."Risk sentiment was broadly steady despite US President Trump's comment that it is 'highly unlikely' that planned tariff rises will be held off. His comments come ahead of the G20 summit of leaders in Argentina starting on Friday which will also be attended by Chinese President Xi. However, some media sources report that Trump and Xi have agreed to reach a mutually beneficial agreement," noted analysts at Lloyds. Among FTSE 100 stocks in London, RELX was up 0.5% after Sky News reported late Monday that its Elsevier scientific publishing arm intends to make a GBP100 million takeover offer for the weekly magazine Times Higher Education, a part of TES Global.RELX is expected to table offers as soon as this week, the Sky News said.Times Higher Education has a partnership deal with Elsevier to use its data to produce global university rankings.The remainder of TES Global's ‎business, which includes The Times Education Supplement magazine, is in the process of being sold separately, Sky News said. Intertek was up 0.4% after the product testing and inspecting services firm said it is on track to deliver its 2018 targets of organic revenue growth, with moderate margin progression and strong cash conversion.For the 10 months to October 31, revenue was up 4.8% at constant currency to GBP2.32 billion, and up 0.5% at actual exchange rates. Organic revenue growth at group level came in at 3.8%. In its Products and Trade units, organic revenue growth was 5.9% and 1.5%, respectively, over the same period.Intertek left its year-end net debt guidance unchanged at GBP800 to GBP850 million. At the other end of the large cap index, NMC Health was the worst performer, down 6.6% after Jefferies downgraded the UAE-focused healthcare provider to Underperform from Hold. In the FTSE 250, Greggs was the best performer, up 13% after on-the-go baked goods retailer said it expects its full-year profit to rise by "at least" 5.1% on the prior year.Greggs said it anticipates its pretax profit for 2018 to come in at "at least GBP86.0 million". A year ago profit was GBP81.8 million. In the year-to-date, sales are up 6.6% with like-for-like up 2.5% on last year.At the bottom the midcap index, Thomas Cook was down 30%. The travel agent and tour operator suspended its annual dividend as it said it expects earnings to be hurt by a number of one-off charges and by weakness in its tour operating business.The company published a preview of its results ahead of schedule due to the expected reduction in earnings. It will report its full audited financial results on Thursday as planned.Thomas Cook said it expects to report underlying earnings before interest and taxes of GBP250 million for the year that ended in September, down GBP58 million, or 19%, year-on-year on a like-for-like basis.The result includes GBP28 million in legacy and non-recurring charges, comprising the write-down of historic hotel receivables, flight disruption costs, and company restructuring costs. Thomas Cook said that as a result of the heatwave in May, demand reduced sharply with customers across European markets delaying holiday decisions as they enjoyed record temperatures at home. This delay in bookings restricted the travel company's ability to achieve the planned margins in the 'lates' booking period, it said. As a result of the "disappointing" trading performance Thomas Cook decided to suspend its dividend for the 2018 financial year. The 2017 dividend was 0.6 pence per share. The pound was down quoted at USD1.2740 against USD1.2814 at the London equities close MondayIn domestic political news, UK Prime Minister Theresa May challenged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to a Brexit TV debate, as US President Trump strongly criticised her EU withdrawal plans.May went on the offensive as she launched an intensive two-week campaign to try and get her EU exit agreement through the Commons.As May heads for Wales and Northern Ireland on Tuesday to try to sell the deal as "good for the union", she told The Sun: "I am going to be explaining why I think this deal is the right deal for the UK - and yes, I am ready to debate it with Jeremy Corbyn.The comments came after Trump appeared to undermine May's Brexit deal.The US president told reporters: "Sounds like a great deal for the EU".Trump added: "I think we have to take a look at, seriously, whether or not the UK is allowed to trade."Because, you know, right now, if you look at the deal, they may not be able to trade with us. And that wouldn't be a good thing."In response to Trump's comments, a Downing Street spokesman said: "The political declaration we have agreed with the EU is very clear we will have an independent trade policy so that the UK can sign trade deals with countries around the world - including with the US.In Tuesday's economic calendar, the CBI distributive trades survey is at 1100 GMT. In the US, the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index is at 1400 GMT.