SSE Share News (SSE)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended higher on Thursday with supermarkets in the green as Tesco defied the negative sentiment surrounding the downtrodden UK retail sector by reporting strong Christmas trading.The FTSE 100 index closed up 36.24 points, or 0.5%, at 6,942.87. The FTSE 250 ended up 21.91 points, or 0.1%, at 18,435.62, and the AIM All-Share closed up 3.10 points, or 0.5%, at 907.73.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.2% at 11,762.18, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.1% at 16,461.67, and the Cboe Small Companies ended flat at 11,146.95.In Paris the CAC 40 ended down 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.3%. "Global equities ended a four day rally on Thursday as reality set in over what was actually achieved in the US-China trade talks, and as the US government shutdown rattles on. The FTSE was faring better than its European counterparts paring losses, thanks in part to the Brexit weakened pound," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta.On the London Stock Exchange, SSE ended among the best blue chip performers, up 2.5% after Credit Suisse resumed coverage on the energy supplier at Outperform.At the other end of the large cap index, BHP Group ended as the worst performer, down 5.3% after the Anglo-Australian miner went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the firm's special payout.Burberry closed down 2.7% after Berenberg downgraded the fashion house to Hold from Buy.Meanwhile, as the week of retail reporting draws to a close, Tesco emerged as the winner in the battle of the London-listed supermarkets.Earlier on Thursday, data from the British Retail Consortium-KPMG retail sales monitor painted a bleak picture of the domestic retail sector.Total sales were flat in the five weeks to December 29 compared to a year before, versus a 1.4% rise in the same period a year ago. This was the lowest growth rate since April, and was below the 3-month and 12-month averages of 0.5% and 1.2%, respectively.This also marked the worst December sales performance since 2008. Tesco, defying the trend, closed up 2.2% after the UK's largest supermarket announced its best set of Christmas trading numbers in almost a decade. "Tesco's positive underlying sales back relief among dominant retailers. Like rival Sainsbury's, the UK's largest operator grew key sales in the flagship UK and Republic of Ireland region compared to the third quarter of 2017. It also highlighted improvement over the critical Christmas weeks. This relief is lifting shares of the Big 3 this week," said City Index analyst ken Odeluga. For the six weeks to last Saturday, Tesco posted group like-for-like sales up 1.5% on the prior year. In the UK & Republic of Ireland, Tesco's like-for-like sales were up 2.6%, "outperforming market in UK in both volume and value terms".In contrast, rival J Sainsbury on Wednesday blamed "cautious" consumer spending for falling sales over its festive quarter as its Argos business also suffered after cutting back on heavy discounts. The grocer - which is in the midst of a merger with rival Asda in a GBP12 billion deal - saw like-for-like retail sales, including Argos and excluding fuel, fall 1.1% in the 15 weeks to Saturday last week. Sainsbury's closed up 1.3% and is 5.5% higher so far this week. On Tuesday, WM Morrison Supermarkets fared slightly better as wholesale contracts helped to boost overall like-for-like sales by 3.6%, although the supermarket's growth in retail sales was slower than the previous year.Morrisons closed up 1.4% and is 3.7% higher this week. Conversely, Marks & Spencer closed down 1.2% after the food, clothing and homewares retailer recorded a fall in both clothing and food sales over the Christmas period, despite insisting it is seeing "encouraging early signs" of improvement. The high street stalwart said like-for-like clothing and home sales dropped 2.4% over the 13 weeks to December 29 while comparable food sales fell 2.1%. Total clothing and home sales fell by 4.8% as it was knocked by a raft of store closures under its overhaul. It was also stung by unusually warm weather and falling consumer confidence in November.In addition, Debenhams closed down 15% after the troubled department store chain on Thursday posted another set of dismal results over Christmas. Debenhams recorded a 3.4% decline in like-for-like in the six weeks to last Saturday, weighed down by the UK where sales were 3.6% lower due to weaker footfall. The company warned that the UK trading environment is still "volatile", with savvy consumers actively seeking out discounts.Department store operator John Lewis Partnership over Christmas booked like-for-like sales growth of just 1%, while sister chain Waitrose saw only 0.3%, growth.Meanwhile in the FTSE 250, Mitchells & Butlers ended as the best performer, up 7.7%, after the restaurant and pub operator said trading for the first quarter of its financial year was positive, helped by a strong festive period. The group, which owns Nicholson pubs and Harvester restaurants, reported like-for-like sales for the three-week Christmas period of 9.8%, with sales of over GBP12 million on Christmas Day.Languishing at the other end of the midcap index, Halfords closed down 22% after the bicycle and car parts retailer lowered its profit expectations after it revealed a drop in third quarter sales. Halfords now expects annual adjusted pretax profit for the year ending March 30 to be between GBP58 million and GBP62 million. In November, Halfords said it expected profit for the 2019 financial year to be broadly flat on the GBP71.6 million achieved for the 2018 financial year. For the 14 weeks to Friday last week, the retailer's total revenue fell by 2.0% hurt by a 2.5% drop in the company's retail division. The pound was marginally higher quoted at USD1.2775 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.2740 at the close Wednesday. In domestic political news, the UK's Brexit date of March 29 could be delayed if Labour forces a UK general election, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said Thursday.In a high-profile speech, the Labour Party leader confirmed his party will vote against UK Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal next Tuesday and call a vote of no confidence in the government if she loses, in the hope of forcing a general election.He dismissed the government's offer to consider new safeguards for workers as part of the Brexit package, backing a trade union assessment that "it simply doesn't guarantee the protections that we are seeking".IG Group analyst Josh Mahony noted: "Tuesday's contentious vote will force the PM to provide a new alternative within three days of the loss. Should she lose the vote, May would be forced to immediately shift from a mantra of 'this deal or no deal', so immediately begin work towards the one thing she purports doesn't exist. Whether she will feel happy to go with the flow remains to be seen, but with a PM that voted remain yet is leading the push towards Brexit, it seems she will do whatever it takes to remain in power." The euro was flat at USD1.1520 at the European equities close, against USD1.1515 late Wednesday. Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close as the three-day meetings between the US and China showed no signs of a significant breakthrough regarding their trade spat. The DJIA, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite were all down 0.1%. A statement from the office of US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the meetings were held as part of an agreement between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to engage in 90 days of negotiations with a view to achieving needed structural changes in China.The statement said the talks included discussions on China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of US goods and services but did not provide details about the tone or outcome of the meetings.On the US economic front, the Labor Department released a report showing a bigger than expected drop in initial jobless claims in the week ended January 5th.The report said initial jobless claims fell to 216,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week's revised level of 233,000.Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 225,000 from the 231.000 originally reported for the previous week.Still to come, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at the at the Economic Club of Washington at 1700 GMT. Brent oil was higher quoted at USD61.33 a barrel at the equities close from USD60.05 at the close Wednesday. Gold was flat quoted at USD1,289.75 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,289.10 late Wednesday.The economic events calendar on Friday has UK industrial and manufacturing figures at 0930 GMT and US inflation readings at 1330 GMT. In addition, the US monthly budget statement for December is set to be released at 1900 GMT. The UK corporate calendar on Friday has trading statements from online electrical goods retailer AO World and from builders' merchant Grafton Group.