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(Alliance News) - Stocks are set to open lower in London on Friday, despite markets elsewhere doing well on the back of comments made by US President Donald Trump regarding trade talks with China.
On the London Stock Exchange, both Jupiter Fund Management and Man Group reported quarterly net outflows, while TP ICAP has reached a settlement with the UK regulator over past misconduct.
Jet2-owner Dart Group has reported a boost in demand following the demise of holiday airline rival Thomas Cook.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 44.7 points lower at 7,141.66. The blue chip index closed up 19.86 points, or 0.3%, at 7,186.36 on Thursday.
US and Chinese delegations will continue trade talks on Friday at the White House, US President Donald Trump said, claiming the first day in the latest round of trade negotiations went "really well".
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He took part in the first day of talks along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The US president earlier indicated he would meet Liu.
"Going to see them tomorrow right here," Trump told reporters outside the White House on Thursday. "It's going very well."
Trump was speaking as the delegations were winding down their first day of talks, which lasted for several hours.
"Traders will be looking ahead to the meeting between Trump and China's Liu He later today. US-China trade talks have been the focus of dealers' attention in the past few weeks," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.
"Yesterday Trump tweeted China 'want to make a deal, but do I?' It was the latest trade themed tweet from Trump, and hours later the US president said trade talks were going 'really well'."
"Stocks markets in Europe plus the US rallied yesterday. The positive mood spilled over to Asia too as equity markets are showing gains," he added.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all closing 0.6% higher.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.2% on Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 2.4% higher.
UK Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay is holding key talks with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Friday as the chance of a breakthrough on securing a withdrawal deal appeared to rise.
The Brussels meeting comes in the wake of discussions between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar after which both leaders declared they could "see a pathway" to a possible agreement.
Barclay's talks look likely to give the clearest indication of whether there has been a significant thawing of relations between London and the EU after a week of abrupt exchanges.
Such a move could lead to the start of so-called intensive "tunnel" negotiations in the coming days ahead of the crunch EU heads of government summit on October 17 and 18.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2450 early Friday, up from USD1.2306 at the close Thursday. Potential Brexit progress strengthened sterling on Thursday, with the pound having closed at USD1.2222 on Wednesday.
In early UK corporate news, FTSE 250 Jupiter Fund Management reported negative net flows in the third quarter of 2019 of GBP1.32 billion, with assets under management falling 1.7% over the quarter to GBP45.91 billion.
Jupiter said much of the outflow came from its European Growth fund.
Man Group, a fund manager that focuses on private markets, likewise reported net outflows during the third quarter, of USD1.1 billion, and funds under management decreased 1% to USD112.7 billion.
Man Group has recently completed a USD100 million share buyback announced in 2018, and said Friday it plans to repurchase another USD100 million.
Chief Executive Luke Ellis said: "In the third quarter, we saw a continuation of the trends experienced in the first half of the year with strong absolute performance and inflows into our quant alternative strategies, and outflows from our long only equity strategies."
Interdealer broker TP ICAP has reached a settlement with the UK Financial Conduct Authority which had been looking into trades made between 2008 and 2011.
The regulator found former managers at TP ICAP "failed to act with due skill, care and diligence", and also said inadequate controls permitted "improper" broker conduct.
TP ICAP will pay GBP15.4 million as a fine, which will be booked as an exceptional item in 2019 results.
Peppa Pig producer Entertainment One reported a 7% drop in first quarter revenue to September to GBP173.1 million. It posted a pretax loss for the period of GBP43.9 million, far wider than the GBP6.8 million reported a year before.
Entertainment One also posted a pretax loss on an adjusted basis of GBP100,000, after a GBP8.3 million profit on a similar basis a year before.
The company, which has agreed a GBP3.3 billion takeover by Hasbro, said revenue was hurt by fewer scripted television and film deliveries in the quarter. Profitability was hurt by the lower revenue as well as one-off financing costs.
Elsewhere, the UK Competition & Markets Authority is considering whether Stonegate Pub Co's GBP1.3 billion acquisition of Ei Group could reduce competition.
Dart Group, which owns budget airline Jet2, has received "encouraging" later season bookings in its Leisure Travel unit, and demand for flights and package holidays "has continued to strengthen".
The demise of Thomas Cook has led to increased demand, Dart said, and it now believes it will top market expectations for pretax profit before foreign exchange for the year to March 2020.
In economic news on Friday, Germany's consumer price inflation came in at 1.2% in September, Destatis revealed, in line with economist expectations.
The 1.2% year-on-year rise in prices compares to a 1.4% rise in August. On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index was flat, again matching economist forecasts, according to FXStreet.
September's harmonised CPI reading was up 0.9% on a yearly basis but down 0.1% from August.
Energy prices fell 1.1% year-on-year in September, Destatis said, while food prices climbed 1.3%, slowing from a 2.7% increase in August. This was mainly driven by a rise in the price of meat and fish.
On a monthly basis, "considerable" price rises came in the form of clothing and footwear, mainly due to a changeover to the autumn/winter collections. Due to the end of summer, the price of package holidays and air tickets declined.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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