Sports Direct Share News (SPD)

(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 added nearly 140 points on Monday, fuelled by a severely weakened pound and acquisition newsflow, the latter resulting in Just Eat and the London Stock Exchange Group racking up strong gains.The FTSE 100 index closed up 137.55 points, or 1.8%, at 7,686.61. The FTSE 250 ended up 28.76 points, or 0.1%, at 19,886.70, and the AIM All-Share closed up 1.71 points or 0.2% at 929.92.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 2.0% at 13,050.56, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.1% at 17,746.81, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.2% at 11,101.49.In European equities on Monday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended flat."The FTSE was in its own, very lucrative, Brexit and M&A bubble on Monday, the UK index effectively playing a different game to its muted Eurozone and US peers," said Connor Campbell at Spreadex.He continued: "On what could have been a quiet day otherwise, the FTSE struck upon a bounty of news. Not only are Just Eat and the London Stock Exchange up...but the pound has fallen off a cliff."The pound was quoted at USD1.2224 at the London equities close Monday, down compared to USD1.2377 at the close on Friday and trading around its worst levels since March 2017."It honestly seems like Boris Johnson's government is actively chasing a no-deal Brexit, the newly-anointed Prime Minister reportedly refusing to meet with EU leaders unless the not-up-for-discussion Irish backstop is scrapped," said Campbell. "Add onto this a weekend full of headlines about ramped up no-deal planning, and the pound had the fear of god put in it."On Sunday, Johnson set up a network of top-level committees to try to ensure Brexit takes place by the deadline of October 31.The Daily Operations Committee, chaired by Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, will meet every weekday in the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms and will be responsible for overseeing all of the government's preparations for leaving the EU, and a possible no-deal exit.The Exit Strategy committee, known as XS, will meet twice a week and be chaired by Johnson.The Daily Telegraph, meanwhile, reported that Johnson was set to launch the biggest advertising campaign since the Second World War to get Britain ready for a no-deal Brexit. A GBP100 million advertising campaign will be launched to prepare the country for no-deal, according to the newspaper.Meanwhile, the euro firmed to stand at USD1.1131 at the European equities close Monday, against USD1.1117 at the same time on Friday.Stocks in New York were mixed at the London equities close, with the DJIA up 0.3%, the S&P 500 index down 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite shedding 0.7%.The FTSE 100 was safely outperforming counterparts in both Europe and the US as, in addition to the lower pound boosting the overseas earnings-heavy index, acquisition newsflow boosted Just Eat and the London Stock Exchange Group. Just Eat shares surged 23% to 780.00p as Dutch rival Takeaway.com confirmed a preliminary agreement for a possible all-share merger between the two.Under the possible deal, Just Eat shareholders would get 0.09744 Takeaway.com shares for each Just Eat share held, which values Just Eat at 731 pence per share. This is a 15% premium to FTSE 100 Just Eat's closing price on Friday last week in London of 635.60p.The deal, the two said, would create one of the world's largest online food delivery programmes, with a combined 360 million orders worth EUR7.3 billion in 2018. The combined group would be domiciled in Amsterdam but would retain its premium listing in London. "Coming off the back of news that Amazon have invested in competitor Deliveroo, this is a clear power play which increases scale and gears Just Eat up for bike delivery services akin to that seen from Uber Eats and Deliveroo," said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at IG. London Stock Exchange Group was the second biggest gainer, up 15% after confirming it is in talks to buy Refinitiv, the financial market data group that was last year hived off from Thomson Reuters to a joint venture led by private equity group Blackstone.If the deal with London Stock Exchange Group goes through, Thomson Reuters expects to own 15% stake in the stock market operator. London Stock Exchange Group on Saturday said that, combined with Refinitiv, it would become the largest listed global financial markets infrastructure provider by revenue, with combined annual revenue of over GBP6 billion in 2018. In third place was British Gas parent Centrica, up 4.3% after HSBC raised the energy provider to Hold from Reduce. Helping support the FTSE 250's session in the green was TBC Bank, up 11% after the Georgia-based firm said profit rose in the first half of 2019 following an increase in net income interest. For the six months to the end of June, the company's pretax profit rose by 11% to GEL265.9 million from GEL239.5 million a year before. This is the equivalent of a rise to GBP73.6 million from GBP66.3 million. On an underlying basis, which excludes one-off costs, pretax profit rose 13% to GEL258.3 million from GEL217.4 million last year. Sausage maker Cranswick was also among the gainers, up 8.5% as the food firm got a boost from African swine fever.The highly contagious and deadly fever has devastated livestock herds, sending meat prices rocketing in China. In the first half of 2019, the size of China's pig herd shrank by 15%. Pork prices in June surged 21% on the year before.This helped Cranswick's Asian export revenue come in "strongly" ahead year-on-year for the three months to June, the company reported, helping to lift group revenue for the quarter by 1.5% despite a strong comparative.Capping gains for the mid-cap index, however, was Sanne which slumped 34% in the wake of a profit warning. For the six months to June, the fund administrator sees an underlying operating margin of around 26%, below previous guidance. This has been hit by a "disappointing" lack of delivery of operating efficiencies, and some extra overhead spend. These are unlikely to be compensated for in the second half of the year, Sanne continued.As a result, the underlying operating margin for 2019 is set to be between 28% to 30%, below previous expectations, and underlying earnings per share will be below expectations. Sports Direct dipped 5.8% after its delayed annual results revealed a fall in earnings.Sports Direct was due to release results for the 52 weeks to April 28 at 0715 BST on Friday, but these did not materialise. On Monday last week, Sports Direct had delayed them after difficulties surrounding the recently acquired House of Fraser, with results originally due Thursday that week.Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation fell 6.0% to GBP287.8 million. Excluding House of Fraser, it rose 11% to GBP339.4 million.In the UK company calendar on Tuesday, there are interim results from consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser, oil major BP, Centrica, baker Greggs and gold miner Fresnillo.In commodities, Brent oil was quoted at USD63.32 a barrel at the London equities close Monday from USD63.71 late Friday."Oil prices have struggled to move significantly in either direction today, as concerns about the future outlook for demand is offset by worries about a further rise in tension in the Middle East. The arrival of another British warship, the destroyer HMS Duncan, to protect commercial shipping from Iranian interference is not expected to see tensions diminish any time soon," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.Gold was quoted at USD1,419.44 an ounce at the London equities close Monday against USD1,417.75 at the close on Friday.In the economic calendar on Tuesday, there is Japanese industrial production at 0050 BST followed by the Bank of Japan's latest monetary policy decision at 0300 BST and then a press conference at 0700 BST.In Europe, French GDP is out at 0630 BST with German Gfk consumer confidence at 0700 BST and eurozone consumer sentiment at 1000 BST. German inflation is at 1300 BST while in the US, core personal consumption expenditure is at 1330 BST.London Close is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com