Thomas Cook Share News (TCG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Following a mixed performance in Asia overnight, London stocks got off to a soft start on Friday. easyJet was the biggest riser in the FTSE 100 as it posted a rise in interim revenue, while Just Eat slumped 10% following a Sky News report that online retail giant Amazon is poised to invest in rival takeaway firm Deliveroo. Metro Bank shares jumped 16% as the lender raised more than it had hoped in an oversubscribed share placing.The FTSE 100 was down 24.02 points, or 0.3%, at 7,329.49 early Friday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 21.93 points, or 0.1% at 19,508.72. The AIM All-Share was down 0.2% at 958.37.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.3% at 12,431.16. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,534.11, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,797.84.In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.3% and 0.6% respectively. In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.9%. In China, the Shanghai Composite finished down 2.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.1% in late trade."The S&P 500 moved higher again yesterday, but concerns about trade relations and limits on Chinese tech firms' access to the US have taken Chinese equity indices down this morning," noted Kit Juckes at Societe Generale. US President Donald Trump earlier in the week declared a national emergency aimed at protecting US communication networks. The executive order declares a national economic emergency that empowers the US government to ban the technology and services of "foreign adversaries" deemed to pose "unacceptable risks" to national security.While no specific countries or companies were named, it follows months of US pressure on Huawei and comes after the US last week increased tariffs to 25% on USD200 billion worth of Chinese products.Falling steeply in London was Just Eat, the FTSE 100 constituent down 10% after Sky News reported online retail giant Amazon is in talks to invest in takeaway platform rival Deliveroo. Sky sources said late on Thursday the deal was likely to be announced by Deliveroo "in the coming days", and is part of a GBP450 million fundraising.The best performer in early trade was easyJet, up 4.6% as the low-cost airline delivered an interim result in line with expectations despite "tougher" trading conditions.Revenue for the half to March 31 grew 7.3% to GBP2.34 billion, though the company's pretax loss widened to GBP272 million from just GBP68 million a year ago.This was as fuel costs rose to GBP602 million from GBP461 million, while crew costs were up to GBP405 million from GBP338 million. Depreciation costs amounted to GBP228 million, versus just GBP95 million a year ago.Revenue per seat fell 6.3%, while headline costs per set fell 3.9%. Looking ahead, the company said revenue per seat at constant currency in the second half is now expected to be slightly down."This is not helped by the ongoing negative impact of Brexit-related market uncertainty as well as a wider macroeconomic slowdown in Europe," noted easyJet.At the same time, however, headline costs per seat excluding fuel at constant currency are expected to decline. As a result, the company said its profit expectations for the current financial year remain unchanged. Capacity growth in the first half was 15%, set to slow to 7% in the second half of the year. Metro Bank shares jumped 16% to 622.59 pence. The challenger bank said it raised GBP375 million through a "significantly oversubscribed" placing, as it placed 75.0 million shares at a price of 500p each, representing a 5.2% discount to its closing price on Thursday. Metro Bank had on Thursday said it was aiming to raise GBP350 million."Although we've faced challenges in the past few months, we remain fully focused on providing the outstanding service and convenience that our customers expect of us. This growth capital will enable us to continue to expand the business and implement our strategic initiatives," said Founder & Chair Vernon Hill. Hill himself subscribed for 1.0 million shares in the placing. The UK Prudential Regulation Authority welcomed the "steps taken" by Metro Bank, with a Bank of England spokesperson noting the lender "is profitable and continues to have adequate capital and liquidity to serve its current customer base".Cairn Energy dipped 2.3% despite saying the first four months of 2019 have seen oil production within guidance.Output thus far in the year has been in line with forecasts of 19,000 to 22,000 barrels of oil per day, with the firm "particularly pleased" with the performance of the Catcher field offshore Scotland, said to be operating ahead of expectations.Cairn said it is fully funded for its planned activities in the year, including spudding the second well at the Lynghaug prospect and its Mexican drilling programme.Restaurant Group was up 2.5% after recent acquisition Wagamama gave a boost to sales.Like-for-like sales in the 19 weeks to May 12 were up 2.8%, with total sales up 57%, reflecting the Wagamama purchase and new pubs and concessions sites opened in 2018.In the period, Restaurant Group said it saw "strong performances" from Wagamama, which "continued to significantly outperform in its core UK market", and from its pub business. Elsewhere on the London Main Market, Capital & Regional was up 4.4% as it reported a strong start to 2019 and welcomed clarity on the situation at UK retailer Debenhams. During the four months to April, Capital & Regional signed 20 lease agreements - 8 new and 12 renewals - worth a combined annual income of GBP1.2 million.Turning to Debenhams, none of the three locations in Capital & Regional's portfolio are due to close as part of the department store chain's company voluntary agreement, but there will still be an annualised hit to net rental income of GBP1.3 million. Thomas Cook slumped 31% after Citigroup cut the travel agent to Sell from Neutral. The stock is down 90% in the past 12 months.The economic events calendar on Friday has eurozone inflation readings at 1000 BST. "The final inflation report should contain no surprises and confirm the temporary acceleration in euro area core inflation to 1.2% yoy in April owing to the late timing of Easter, while headline inflation should be confirmed at 1.7% yoy," said Societe Generale.