Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening lower on Monday, tracking declines by markets in Asia after disappointing trade figures from China.In early company news, sportswear retailer JD Sports said it enjoyed a strong performance over the Christmas period and expects headline pretax profit at the upper end of market expectations, while recruiter PageGroup reported positive fourth-quarter earnings. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index will open 33.78 points lower at 6,884.40. The blue chip index closed down 24.69 points, or 0.4%, at 6,918.18 on Friday.In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.6%. The market in Japan is closed for Coming Of Age Day holiday.China's exports unexpectedly fell 4.4% in December from a year earlier in the month - the biggest monthly drop in two years - while imports also fell 7.6%, marking the biggest decline since July 2016.For 2018 as a whole, China's trade surplus with the US grew to USD323 billion, official data showed Monday, despite the ongoing trade war between the two countries. China exported USD478 billion of goods to the US in 2018 - an increase of 11% on the previous year - and imported USD155 billion of goods in an increase of just 0.7%, according to figures from China's Customs Agency.Meanwhile, China's global exports rose by 9.9% in 2018, the figures showed, while imports rose 16%.JD Sports Fashion said total sales were up 15% in the 48 weeks to January, following a "consistently positive" like-for-like sales performance during Black Friday and the Christmas period.The high street retailer said gross profit margins have been maintained at prior year levels as its continues with its policy "not to enter into short-term reactive discounting unnecessarily". In addition, JD Sports expressed confidence that headline pretax profit will be at the upper end of market expectations, which currently ranges from GBP325 million to GBP352 million. "Given the well-publicised challenges within the wider UK retail market, we are pleased with this trading result which further demonstrates the robust foundations of our dynamic multi-brand multichannel proposition across our core market and our capacity for further growth across an expanding geographical reach," the company said. Headhunting firm PageGroup said it saw "record" fourth-quarter earnings with all of its regions delivering growth. For the fourth quarter ended September 30, gross profit was up 15% in constant currencies and 16% at reported rates to GBP211.1 million from GBP182.4 last year. The company said its five markets of Germany, Greater China, Latin America, South East Asia and the US continued to perform strongly - growing 25% collectively - delivering a "record year".In the UK, gross profit was up 2.1% in the fourth quarter to GBP33.5 million from GBP32.8 million last year, amid continued Brexit uncertainty which hurt candidate and client confidence. the company said. "We will continue to focus on driving profitable growth, while continuing our strategic investments towards our Vision of 10,000 headcount, GBP1 billion of gross profit and GBP200 million to GBP250 million of operating profit. Our flexible and diversified business model ensures that we are able to respond quickly to changes in market conditions. We are pleased with the group's performance and expect 2018 operating profit to be in line with consensus," Chief Executive Steve Ingham said. Elsewhere, clothing and homeware retailer Next was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral by Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank cut lender HSBC Holdings to Sell from Hold. The pound was flat, quoted at USD1.2832 early Monday against USD1.2835 at the London equities close Friday with the key vote in the House of Commons looming.Parliament is more likely to block Britain's exit from the EU than allow it to crash out without a deal, Theresa May is set to warn as she launches a last-ditch plea to MPs to back her Brexit deal.The prime minister will use a speech on the eve of the critical Commons vote on her exit plan to urge MPs to consider the "consequences" of their actions on the faith of British people in democracy.She is expected to reiterate her warning that "catastrophic harm" will be inflicted to trust in politicians if they fail to implement the result of the referendum.With less than 36 hours to go until the long-awaited vote, May will say, based on last week's Westminster drama, that she now believes MPs blocking Brexit is a more likely outcome than leaving without a deal.