Sophos Group Share News (SOPH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended sharply higher on Friday as investors welcomed potential progress in the ongoing trade spat between the US and China.Sentiment was buoyed after a report from Bloomberg News said China has offered to go on a six-year buying spree to ramp up imports from the US.An official familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg that China would seek to reduce its trade surplus with the US by increasing annual goods imports by a combined value of more than USD1 trillion.The Bloomberg report comes on the heels of Thursday's Wall Street Journal report indicating the US is considering lifting tariffs on Chinese goods. The newspaper reported that the US is weighing easing tariffs in an effort to calm markets and give China an incentive to make deeper concessions.People close to internal deliberations told the Journal that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin proposed the idea of lifting some or all tariffs in a series of strategy meetings.The people said the aim of easing the tariffs is to advance trade talks and win China's support for longer-term reforms."For now, this is all just rumour. We have been here many times before over the last few months. The fact that the market is happy to jump from headline to headline, buying in or selling off on rumours reflects the just how important the trade issue is. Should we see some solid evidence that progress towards a trade deal is being made, then we can expect to see a sustained rally in riskier assets," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta. The FTSE 100 index closed up 133.41 points, or 2.0%, at 6,968.33, ending the week up 0.7%. The FTSE 250 ended up 227.15 points, or 1.2%, at 18,764.47, ending the week 1.2% higher and the AIM All-Share closed up 9.20 points, or 1.0%, at 913.67, ending the week up 0.4%. The Cboe UK 100 ended up 2.0% at 11,840.38, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 1.4% at 16,753.81, but the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.5% at 11,101.24.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 1.7%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 2.6%. On the London Stock Exchange, Ashtead ended as the best blue chip performer, up 4.5% following a positive broker note from RBC Capital. The Canadian bank reiterated its Outperform rating on Ashtead saying the equipment rental firm is well-equipped to deal with a potential slowdown in the US construction market due to its shift away from non-residential construction.Oil majors ended in the green with BP, up 2.4%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', up 2.5% and Shell 'B', up 2.7% tracking spot oil prices higher. Brent oil was sharply higher, quoted at USD62.80 a barrel at the London equities close from USD60.89 at the close Thursday. Oil prices rallied to near one-month highs after OPEC members reported the biggest monthly drop in production in nearly two years as part of efforts to keep oil markets balanced over the whole of 2019.Collective output from OPEC members fell by 751,000 barrels a day last month, to 31.6 million as part of the agreement reached at the meeting in early December in Vienna. OPEC expects 2019 global oil demand growth to slow to 1.3 million barrels per day from 1.5 million in 2018 as the economic risks remain skewed to the downside.At the other end of the large cap index, Fresnillo ended as one of two stocks in the red, down 1.5% - tracking spot gold prices lower.Gold was down, quoted at USD1,282.80 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,291.10 late Thursday, as the demand for safe-haven assets waned. In the FTSE 250, Sophos Group ended as the worst performer, down 18% with GBP319 million slashed off its total market value in the process after the cyber security firm reported a "subdued billings performance" for the third quarter. On Thursday, the company's market capitalisation had stood at GBP1.81 billion. For the three months to the end of December, billings dipped by 0.6% to USD193.7 million from USD194.0 million. For the nine-month period, billings increased slightly by 1.9% to USD546.4 million from USD536.3 million. Sophos attributed the subdued performance to a "modest decline" in billings from new customers, and a decline in hardware billings. This led to earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation declining by 8.3% for the nine-month period to USD103.9 million from USD113.3 million. The group expects third quarter trends to continue into the final quarter of its financial year, which would lead to a modest decline in constant currency billings.Elsewhere, Ryanair Holdings closed up 0.8%, recovering from earlier losses, after the Irish airline reduced its profit guidance, blaming lower fares over the winter period. For its financial year ending March, Ryanair is guiding for post-tax profit between EUR1.0 billion and EUR1.1 billion. Its prior guidance range was EUR1.1 billion to EUR1.2 billion. Post-tax profit in its previous financial year was EUR1.5 billion, meaning profit will be down as much as 50% in financial 2019. The previous year's figure had been up 10% on financial 2017.The pound was lower, quoted at USD1.2897 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.2920 at the close Thursday, amid disappointing UK retail sales numbers.UK retail sales decreased in December at the fastest pace in over one-and-a-half years, suggesting that households have started to rein in their spending ahead of Brexit.The seasonally-adjusted retail sales including auto fuel decreased 0.9% from November, when they grew 1.3% driven by Black Friday sales, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday. Economists had expected a 0.8% decline.On a year-on-year basis, retail sales rose 3% in December following a 3.4% increase in the previous month. Economists had expected a 3.8% growth.Philipp Gutzwiller, head of retail at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: "While there were some winners and losers on the high street, the question now on everyone's mind is how long before the current challenges around tightened consumer spending and broader uncertainty start to ease. For now, there are enough retailers who either remain creative enough to tempt shoppers to spend a little more, or resilient enough to face into the headwinds."Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is set to publish a new strategy, or "Plan B" over Brexit on Monday. The House of Commons will debate and vote on the plan on January 29 - two months before the UK's departure date from the EU. The euro was marginally lower, at USD1.1362 at the European equities close, against USD1.1385 late Thursday. Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close hitting their highest levels in over a month. The DJIA was up 1.2%, the S&P 500 index 1.3% higher and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.9%.The UK corporate calendar on Monday has trading statements from bookmaker William Hill and budget hotel operator easyHotel. The economic events calendar on Monday has China retail sales and fourth quarter GDP figures at 0200 GMT and Germany producer prices at 0700 GMT. In addition, financial markets in the US are closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Day holiday, while world leaders will gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum starting on Tuesday.