Thomas Cook Share News (TCG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended lower on Friday as the US-China trade spat took an acrimonious twist, with Beijing intensifying its rhetoric over trade with Washington.US President Donald Trump sought to blame China for backing out of a nearly completed trade deal, but China hit back claiming the US is responsible for serious setbacks in the trade talks.Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng accused the Trump administration of "bullying behavior" with a recent increase in tariffs, according to state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua."It is regrettable that the US side unilaterally escalated trade disputes, which resulted in severe negotiating setbacks," Gao said. "We urge the US side to correct wrongdoings as soon as possible to avoid causing heavier damages to businesses and consumers in both countries and dragging down the global economy."LPL Research said: "China has let the yuan weaken 3% in the past month on increased US-China trade tensions potentially resulting in People's Bank of China initiating monetary policy tools to prevent any further weakness. While yuan weakness can reduce some of the effects of the tariff increase, dampened confidence in the currency is at odds with China's long-term ambitions. Ultimately, we believe this is a short-term solution and that China is more inclined to reach a trade deal with the US." The FTSE 100 index closed down 4.89 points, or 0.1%, at 7,348.62, ending the week 2.0% higher.The FTSE 250 ended down 32.40 points, or 0.2% at 19,498.61, ending the week up 0.7%, and the AIM All-Share closed down 2.23 points, or 0.2%, at 958.69, ending the week up 0.1%.The Cboe UK 100 ended flat at 12,463.79, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.2% at 17,518.88, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.5% at 11,850.19.In Paris the CAC 40 ended down 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.6%. "It's been a disappointing end to what has been a turbulent week for European stocks with three days of gains bookended by what looks like will be two days of losses, with investors reluctant to run too much risk heading into the weekend, given how last weekend turned out, as markets fell sharply on Monday," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. In the FTSE 100, easyJet ended the best performer, up 5.3% after the budget airline said it saw high-single-digit revenue growth in the first half of its current financial year but loss widened, in line with forecasts, due to an increase in fuel costs. In the six months to March 31, easyJet's pretax loss widened significantly to GBP272 million compared to a GBP68 million loss reported for the same period a year earlier. Fuel cost per seat jumped 14% in the period to GBP13.02 from GBP11.42 the year before, driven by a rise in oil prices.easyJet's total fuel costs increased 31% in the first half to GBP602 million from GBP461 million the year prior. As a result, the airline's headline cost per seat increased 3.9% to GBP56.66 from GBP54.53. Nevertheless, the company's revenue increased 7.3% to GBP2.34 billion from GBP2.18 billion the year before. Total revenue per seat, however, was down by 6.3% to GBP50.71 from GBP54.10. The airline hiked its interim payout 43% to 58.6 pence from 40.9p the year before.Sage Group closed up 1.2% after the accounting software provider said it saw double-digit growth in profit in the first half of its current financial year as it progresses its transition away from licence contracts, which attract longer payment terms.Sage said revenue in the six months to the end of March grew 6.5% to GBP957 million from GBP899 million, pushing pretax profit up by 16% to GBP198 million from GBP171 million. The company lifted its interim dividend by 2.5% to 5.79 pence from 5.65p paid the year before. At the other end of the large cap index, online takeaway platform Just Eat ended the worst performer, down 8.2% after it emerged e-commerce giant Amazon is leading a USD575 million funding round for rival takeaway platform Deliveroo. The new fund raise increases the total funds raised by Deliveroo to USD1.5 billion. Deliveroo said it will use the funds to grow its engineering team based in its London headquarters, expand its delivery, and develop "new innovations" in the food sector, such as its delivery-only kitchens. Deliveroo didn't disclose what size stake Amazon would hold following its investment. "Given its financial firepower it is little wonder that Amazon effectively parking its tanks on Just Eat's lawn is spooking investors. Pressure on Just Eat's share price could leave the company vulnerable to being swallowed up by a larger peer," noted AJ Bell's Russ Mould.Ferguson closed down 2.3% after Credit Suisse downgraded the plumbing and heating products supplier to Underperform from Neutral, saying it will be hit by weakening demand and distribution and wage inflation in its key US market.In the FTSE 250, Metro Bank ended the best performer, up 26% at 677.00 pence after the troubled challenger bank said it raised GBP375 million in a much needed equity raise after UK regulators found an accounting error in its loan book at the start of the year. The lender said the GBP375 million raised exceeded its initial target of GBP350 million. Metro Bank will issue a total of 75.0 million new shares - which were underwritten by RBC Capital Markets, Jefferies International, and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The placing price of 500 pence represented a 5.2% discount to Metro Bank's five day average closing price on Thursday. Justifying the need for the capital raise, the lender explained it had been hit by a mix of macroeconomic difficulties such as regulatory changes and the low-interest rate environment as well as "company-specific factors". The capital raise followed a well-documented accounting error in January which left Metro Bank without the capital it needed to grow.Elsewhere, Thomas Cook closed down 40% after Citigroup cut the travel agent to Sell from Neutral and slashed its price target to zero from 28p.The US bank said it fears news of Thursday's GBP1 billion writedown and a comment concerning "material uncertainties" from the auditors will spook consumers and drive further booking weakness. The pound was quoted at USD1.2737 at the London equities close, down from USD1.2788 at the close Thursday, hitting a fresh four-month low after cross-party talks over Brexit finally collapsed.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn put paid to negotiations after six weeks of talks, saying they had "gone as far as they can" and "we have been unable to bridge important policy gaps between us".Prime Minister Theresa May hit back pointing to Labour's own divisions over the issue of a second referendum, saying Corbyn's party had made it impossible for a deal to be reached.The government will now focus on trying to win over rebel Tories and the DUP, and hope Labour MPs can be swayed based on the common ground established during the talks on areas including workers' rights and environmental protections.May is due to set out the timetable for her exit from Number 10 following the vote on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill and candidates already throwing their hats into the ring, with the UK set to depart the EU in October. Berenberg's Holger Schmieding said: "The one potential upside is that, fearing that the next prime minister could be a Brexiteer such as Boris Johnson, parliament might be incentivised to vote for the Withdrawal Agreement - this is the one sure fire way of taking a hard Brexit off the table. The Withdrawal Agreement, which contains the Irish backstop, would commit the UK to a customs union style arrangement as the bare minimum for the future relationship. Any further agreement would need to be practically equivalent to this or more comprehensive. "Our key concern is that the risk that the UK could waste the next six months. This tilts the risk of a hard Brexit - which we put at 20% - a little to the upside. Come late October, the EU may be much less willing to grant the UK a further extension than it was in April. Still, as a hard Brexit only has minority support among the British population and in the British parliament, it remains a somewhat unlikely outcome."The euro stood at USD1.1160 at the European equities close, marginally lower than USD1.1175 late Thursday. In economic news from the continent, the eurozone's core inflation accelerated in April at a faster than estimated pace to its highest level in two years, latest data from the statistical office Eurostat showed. Core inflation, which excludes prices of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, climbed to 1.3% in April, which was higher than the initial estimate of 1.2%. In March, the figure was 0.8%. The latest core inflation rate was the highest since April 2017, when it was at the same level. The consumer price index rose 1.7% year-on-year following a 1.4% increase in March, in line with its flash estimate. Inflation remains below the European Central Bank's target of just below 2% for the 19-member currency bloc.Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close amid persistent concerns about the escalating trade dispute between the US and China.The DJIA was down 0.1%, the S&P 500 index down 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.4%.Brent oil was quoted at USD72.60 a barrel at the London equities close, down from USD73.14 at the close Thursday. Gold was quoted at USD1,275.10 an ounce at the London equities close, down from USD1,287.60 late Thursday, amid dollar strength. The economic events calendar on Monday has Japan first-quarter GDP figures at 0050 BST, Germany producer prices at 0700 BST and eurozone current account numbers at 1000 BST. The corporate calendar on Monday has annual results from Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings and shipping services provider Braemar Shipping Services. There is also third-quarter results from IT infrastructure provider Softcat.