Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening lower on Friday amid rising trade tensions and disappointing Chinese economic data. In early UK company news, insurance firm Legal & General has agreed to sell its General Insurance business to Germany's Allianz. Regional airline Wizz Air reported a rise in annual profit amid revenue growth. Casino operator Rank Group confirmed it was in advanced discussions to acquire Stride Gaming in an all-cash offer.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 41.26 points, or 0.6%. lower at 7,176.80 on Friday. The FTSE 100 index closed 32.86 points, or 0.5%, higher at 7,218.16 on Thursday.US President Donald Trump announced a 5% tariff on all goods imported from Mexico to pressure the country into stopping illegal immigrants from entering the US.In a statement, Trump said Mexico's "passive cooperation" with the flow of illegal immigration was an "emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the US".The tariff will be imposed on June 10 and be raised to 10% on July 1 "if the crisis persists", Trump added. The tariff will then be gradually increased "if Mexico still has not taken action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing into the the US"."This surprise announcement, coming as it does in the wake of the recent new trade agreement USMCA, was completely unexpected and could well upend the whole agreement. It also makes it much more difficult for countries to take the US at its word when it comes to trade negotiations if its President can so easily lob a hand grenade into the path of an already agreed deal," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.In addition, China said it was preparing to raise tariffs on US goods worth USD60 billion on Saturday. The tariffs will primarily impact US agricultural and food products, which were earlier hit with tariffs of between 5% and 10%. They will be raised to 25%. The move follows Washington's decision to raise tariffs earlier this month to 25% from 10% on USD200 billion worth of Chinese goods. In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 ending up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite 0.3% higher.In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 0.5% lower.In China, the manufacturing sector fell into contraction in May, with the National Bureau of Statistics posting a purchasing managers' index score of 49.4. That was short of expectations for 49.9 and down from 50.1 in April. It also fell below the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.The non-manufacturing PMI came in at 54.3 - unchanged from the previous month and in line with expectations - while the composite index had a score of 53.3, down fractionally from 53.4 a month earlier."This was the first insight on the impact of the tariff increase by Trump earlier in May and it doesn't look good. China's manufacturing sector is clearly being hit by US tariffs. This is heightening concerns over a global growth slowdown. Miners could have a rough run today," said Jasper Lawler, head of Research at London Capital Group.In early UK company news, blue chip insurer Legal & General Group said it has sold its General Insurance business to German insurer Allianz for a base price of GBP242 million.The group's General Insurance business mainly sold household insurance to retail customers.L&G said there could be potential further payments over a three-year period based on ongoing commercial arrangements.The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. L&G said the sale is expected to increase the company's solvency II ratio by about 2%, while proceeds from the sale will be reinvested to the group's core businesses.Wizz Air Holdings reported a 4.5% increase in pretax profit for the financial year to the end of March to EUR300.2 million from EUR287.3 million the year before.This was on revenue that grew by 20% to EUR2.32 billion from EUR1.94 billion, on strong rises in capacity, with available seat kilometres rising by 17% and the number of passengers carried rising by 17% to 34.6 million.Looking ahead, Wizz Air has guided net profit for the 2020 financial year to be between EUR320 million and EUR350 million, up from EUR292 million for 2019.Casino operator Rank Group said it is in "advanced discussions" with AIM-listed Stride Gaming on a possible all-cash offer which values Stride's shares at 151 pence per share.The offer is at a 28% premium to Stride Gaming's closing price on Thursday, at 117.50 pence. Stride Gaming currently has a market cap of GBP89.1 million.Both Rank and Stride stated that there was no certainty that any offer would be made.International infrastructure group Balfour Beatty said it has been conditionally selected through a joint venture with Fluor Corp, to deliver the Interstate 635 LBJ East project for the Texas Department of Transportation.The project is worth a total of USD1.7 billion, and works include the reconstruction and widening of the 11 miles of the highway around the north and east of the city Dallas, as well as the construction of service roads and intersection improvements.Once completed, the highway will consist of 12 lanes in total, and is expected to improve safety and reduce congestion for drivers. Still to come in the economic calendar on Friday, Italy GDP and inflation data are at 0900 BST and 1000 BST respectively and UK mortgage approvals numbers at 0930 BST. In the afternoon there are Germany inflation readings at 1300 BST and US personal consumption expenditure figures at 1330 BST. The core reading of this is the US Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation.