Saga Share News (SAGA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were lower on Friday, still reeling after the European Central Bank slashed its economic outlook for the eurozone on Thursday.On the London Stock Exchange, miners were in the red after China reported weak trade figures.The FTSE 100 index was 66.02 points lower, or 0.9%, at 7,090.97.The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 154.04 points, or 0.8%, at 19,029.78, while the AIM All-Share index was down 0.2% at 907.71.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.8% at 12,042.24, while the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.6% at 17,037.21, and the Cboe UK Small Companies down 0.1% at 11,117.52.Stock markets across the globe tumbled on Thursday amid fresh worries about a global economic slowdown after the ECB cut its economic growth forecast, citing lingering, mainly external uncertainties."The London gauge is down after the ECB's grim assessment of the state of the European economy yesterday and the index's chance of recovery has been dealt a further blow by data pointing to an increasingly serious slowdown in China," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.5% and 0.6% respectively. The euro stood at USD1.1215 at midday, down from USD1.1236 at the European equities close Thursday. The single currency slipped to low of USD1.1185 overnight, its lowest level since mid-2017. "It has made clear that the ECB is not planning any further rate hikes and has adopted a completely neutral stance. It also sees the possibility of further expansionary measures. So the dollar side of our forecast has not changed. However, since, in contrast to our old forecast, the euro will not be able to benefit from interest rate hike expectations in the foreseeable future, the upward path in EUR to USD starts from lower levels in view of the current weakness of the euro and is ultimately limited," said analysts at Commerzbank. In the FTSE 100, Fresnillo was the best blue chip performer, up 1.0%. The Mexican gold miner was tracking spot gold price higher, quoted at USD1,294.07 an ounce, up from USD1,285.30 at the London equities close Thursday. Mid-cap Egyptian gold miner Centamin was up 1.8%.At the other end of the large cap index GVC Holdings was the worst performer, down 17% at 575.50 pence, after the sports-betting company's top brass offloaded a sizeable amount of stock.Chief Executive Kenneth Alexander sold 2.1 million shares at 666 pence for GBP13.7 million, while Chair Lee Feldman disposed of 900,000 shares at the same price for GBP6.0 million. Miners were in the red after the weak trade data from China, with Antofagasta down 3.7%, Anglo American down 2.5%, and Glencore down 2.4%.China's exports declined 21% in February due to the Lunar New Year holiday and pressure from the trade war with the US, official data showed. Exports reached USD135.2 billion following the larger-than-expected annual drop. Chinese imports fell 5.2% year-on-year in February to USD131.1 billion. Total foreign trade decreased 14% compared with last February, reaching USD266.4 billion. Foreign trade was impacted by China's week-long Lunar New Year holiday in early February."Growth downgrades from the ECB are part of a wider global slowdown, with the sharp decline in Chinese trade announced overnight provide that the worst may be yet to come. The decline in February exports marked the steepest fall in three years, and while some will reference seasonal factors, this is clearly a hugely important number to prove the damage the US-China trade war is having. The more the Chinese economy will hurt," said IG Group analyst Josh Mahony. In the FTSE 250, SIG was the best performer, up 8.5% after the building products firm reported a drop in annual revenue, though it has swung to a pretax profit. SIG's statutory revenue fell to GBP2.74 billion in 2018, from GBP2.88 billion in 2017, but it returned to pretax profit, posting GBP28.5 million from a GBP54.7 million loss a year prior. On an underlying basis, revenue fell 1.2% to GBP2.68 billion, with like-for-like sales down 2.1%. SIG's underlying pretax profit was up 8.5% to GBP75.3 million.The company said its transformation strategy is now beginning to take shape, with the second half of 2018 seeing "significant" progress.At the other end of the midcaps, Saga was the worst performer, down 9.1% after JPMorgan downgraded the over 50s travel and insurance services provider to Underweight from Neutral.The US bank said a weak balance sheet, alongside heightened insurance industry competition, could lead to concerns about Saga's dividend being cut. The pound was quoted at USD1.3077 at midday, lower than USD1.3096 at the London equities close Thursday.In domestic political news, UK Prime Minister Theresa May will plead with EU leaders to show flexibility in order to help her Brexit deal survive next week's Commons showdown. After talks earlier this week in Brussels broke down, May said the decisions made by the EU in the coming days would have a "big impact" on the fate of the deal. MPs will vote on Tuesday on whether to back the Withdrawal Agreement as May seeks further concessions on the Northern Ireland backstop in order to reverse the humiliating 230-vote defeat suffered the last time the Commons passed judgment on her Brexit deal.Elsewhere, UK high street retailers experienced their worst February in a decade with total sales up marginally on the previous year, according to the latest BDO's High Street Sales Tracker data. Data covering the four weeks to February 24, showed total like-for-like sales up 0.8% on the same month a year ago. In-store sales were down 3.7% year-on-year, while online sales increased by 12%. A year ago online sales accelerated by 16%.Stocks in New York were set for a lower open ahead of the closely watched US jobs report for February at 1330 GMT.The DJIA and the S&P 500 index were both called down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was pointed down 0.5%.The February nonfarm payroll number is expected to come in at 180,000, following a 304,000 surge in January. The headline unemployment rate is anticipated to fall to 3.9% in February from 4.0% in January, while gains in hours-worked and hourly earnings are also expected. "In light of the recent sell off, weak wages growth may be sufficient to convince the market that the fed is ready to call time on quantitative tightening. This should in turn have the ability to bolster the inflation print without resorting to talk of a rate hike and any suggestion that cheap money is coming back into circulation also has the potential to lend some support to stocks," said AxiTrader analyst James Hughes.