Sports Direct Share News (SPD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Risk-on sentiment was muted early Thursday following disappointing Chinese industrial data overnight, while ex-dividend stocks weighed on the FTSE 100 and Just Group dragged on the FTSE 250.The FTSE 100 index was 4.76 points lower, or 0.1%, at 7,154.43 early Thursday. The FTSE 250 was down 25.67 points, or 0.1%, at 19,154.42, though the AIM All-Share index was flat at 909.42.The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 12,143.73. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 17,161.26, and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,115.93.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.3% and flat respectively early Thursday.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed flat. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 1.2%, though the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed up 0.2%.Stocks in Asia traded broadly lower overnight, knocking sentiment in Europe early Thursday, following disappointing industrial data from China. Official data showed China's industrial production grew at the slowest pace in nearly two decades in the first two months of the year.Industrial production rose 5.3% year-on-year in the January to February period, which was less than the 5.6% gain economists had forecast. In December, production grew 5.7%."It wasn't a long ago when the markets felt the pain of feeble Chinese import and export numbers. Today's drop in the Chinese industrial number confirmed the weakness in the Chinese economy is for real," said ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam.He added: "This all comes in the midst of Brexit chaos."Members of Parliament are set to vote on whether to keep Britain in the EU longer than planned after UK Prime Minister Theresa May's authority over Brexit sustained another major blow.After the 149-vote rejection of her Withdrawal Agreement on Tuesday, May suffered a second defeat in as many days when MPs backed the cross-party amendment rejecting a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances.In a surprise move, the Commons voted 312 to 308 - a majority of four - in favour of the proposal tabled by former Conservative Party chairman Dame Caroline Spelman.The vote was later confirmed by a more emphatic 321 votes to 278, overriding a government motion that would have rejected no-deal on the scheduled date of March 29 but left it on the table for other times.After the defeat, May made it clear that she intends to put a third "meaningful vote" on her Brexit deal to the Commons within days.Following the Commons move on no deal, the government put down a motion for debate on Thursday that offers to seek a one-off extension of Article 50, delaying the scheduled Brexit date of March 29 to June 30 if MPs approve the deal negotiated with the EU by next Wednesday.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3329 early Thursday, up from USD1.3215 at the London equities close on Wednesday and having hit a nine-month high of USD1.3381 overnight.Ex-dividends were among the worst performers in the FTSE 100, including miner Anglo American, down 2.3%, and property developer Land Securities, down 1.4%Cineworld and Just Group were topping and tailing the FTSE 250, up 4.6% and down 16% respectively. Cineworld's profit and revenue in 2018 soared, boosted by its acquisition of US cinema chain Regal Entertainment.Revenue for 2018 on a proforma basis was up 7.2% to USD4.71 billion, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deprecation and amortisation up 9.4% to USD1.07 billion.On a statutory basis, revenue more than tripled to USD4.12 billion from USD1.14 billion in 2017, as pretax profit climbed more than two-fold to USD349.0 million from USD155.1 million.Cineworld completed its acquisition of US cinema chain Regal Entertainment in February 2018.Cineworld declared a full-year dividend of 15 cents, up 18% on the year before."We are pleased to announce strong full year results following the successful acquisition of Regal. We are well on our way to achieving the successful business integration following a strong performance and record box office results in the US," said Cineworld Chief Executive Mooky Greidinger.Greidinger added: "The combination with Regal has exceeded our expectations - we have incorporated the best of both companies by bringing together world-class talent, integrating best practice from both sides of the Atlantic and deepened our understanding of the US market."Meanwhile, life insurer Just Group sank as it said it is looking to place shares representing around 10% of its current issued share capital, as it separately revealed it sank to a loss in 2018.Just Group said it is conducting the placing in order to strengthen its capital base to "support its new business franchise and maintain its focus on growing profits".Just Group is looking to conduct an underwritten placing to institutional investors of 94.0 million shares via an accelerated bookbuild.Turning to results for 2018, Just Group's net premium revenue rose to GBP2.71 billion from GBP2.43 billion, but the company sank to a loss of GBP85.5 million from GBP181.3 million the year before.The loss was driven by changes to property assumptions "in light of the economic and financial uncertainty caused by Brexit", the company said.The FTSE 250 constituent added that it has considered it "appropriate" not to pay a dividend for 2018, and will look to recommence payouts in 2019 at a "rebased" level of approximately one third of the 3.72p paid out in 2017.Among other movers in the FTSE 250, Ultra Electronics was up 3.5% after Berenberg raised its rating on the defence firm to Buy from Hold. OneSavings was up 2.5% as the lender and Charter Court Financial Services said they have agreed to the terms of an all-share merger.The agreement, with OneSavings offering 0.8253 of a share for each Charter Court share, is the same as that first announced at the start of the week. Under the deal, Charter Court shareholders would own 45% of the group and OneSavings the rest.Charter Court shares were down 0.1%. Capita fell 1.5% as the outsourcer swung to a profit after completing the first year of its transformation programme, with adjusted profit slightly ahead of expectations despite being lower than 2017.Pretax profit came in at GBP272.6 million for 2018, swinging from a loss of GBP513.1 million. On an adjusted basis, Capita's pretax profit fell to GBP282.1 million from GBP383.1 million the year before, the the company noted this was still "slightly ahead" of guidance.In 2019, the company expects to generate an adjusted pretax profit between GBP265 million to GBP295 million."Our transformation still has some way to go. But I am very pleased with our progress. Our targets remain on track, and I'm excited about the prospects for a simplified and strengthened Capita," said Chief Executive Jon Lewis.Elsewhere on the Main Market, Debenhams rose 4.4% as it responded to Sports Direct International's GBP150 million loan offer, and said it would give the proposal "careful consideration".Late Wednesday, FTSE 250-listed retailer Sports Direct said it will make a GBP150 million unsecured term loan for 12 months to Debenhams. Of the total amount of the lending, GBP40 million would be used to repay Debenhams' bridge facility, while the remaining GBP110 million would be available for general working capital.However, the department store warned that any third party loan offer on these terms would require both the consent of its revolving credit facility lenders and noteholders, and "material amendments" to existing facilities.Sports Direct shares were up 0.8% in early trade.The economic events calendar on Thursday has Ireland GDP at 1100 GMT and US import and export numbers at 1230 GMT.