WPP Share News (WPP)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended lower on Thursday as trade war concerns took a backseat to issues closer to home, as the UK got a step closer to finding out who will succeed Theresa May as UK prime minister. The FTSE 100 index closed broadly flat, or up 0.59 points, at 7,368.57. The FTSE 250 ended down 77.69 points, or 0.4% at 19,172.37 and the AIM All-Share closed 5.34 points lower, or 0.6%, at 938.97.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.1% at 12,494.65, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.4% at 17,208.40, and the Cboe Small Companies ended down 0.4% at 11,636.89.In Paris the CAC 40 ended flat, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.4%.US President Donald Trump confirmed he will have talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan to discuss trade. "I have a feeling we are going to make a deal with China," Trump said on Wednesday at the White House, but also cautioned: "I'd like to make a deal but we will see what happens." Trump has accused China of reneging on agreements that were reached between the sides and indicated he is not willing to open up again issues that he believed were settled. Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, Trump said the sides had agreed on opening China for foreign businesses and handling issues around intellectual property theft.Chris Ford, manager of the Smith & Williamson Artificial Intelligence fund, said: "In the short term we would expect markets to remain choppy until there is at least some partial resolution on the trade dispute between the US and China."Assuming that Trump can extract some trade concessions from China we would expect a trade deal to be done, but at the moment an escalation of hostilities cannot be ruled out, and correspondingly we are monitoring events closely," Ford added. "Moreover, even if Trump does come to an accord with China, it does not necessarily mean the end of trade wars - Trump dislikes any country that runs a large trade surplus with the US, which puts the likes of Germany firmly in Trump's crosshairs. In the meantime, we would expect semiconductor and makers of related capital equipment to be volatile."On the London Stock Exchange, Ferguson ended the best blue chip performer, up 6.0% after Trian Investors Management acquired a 6.0% stake in the plumbing and heating products supplier."Trian believes Ferguson is an attractive business that trades at a discount to comparable US peers," the US activist investor said.CMC Markets analyst David Madden commented: "The investment group is controlled by Nelson Peltz, who has a history of building stakes in companies that he feels are undervalued. Peltz is no stranger to making his voice heard, and it won't be a surprise if he starts making recommendations to the board about the group's strategy."DS Smith closed up 5.1% after the paper and packaging company reported a strong set of annual results, with the US business coming in "well ahead" of expectations. For the 12 months to March, pretax profit rose 35% year-on-year to GBP350 million, with the adjusted figure up 31% to GBP569 million. Revenue for the period climbed 12% to GBP6.17 billion, with organic corrugated box volume growth 2.4% after a strong first half, though growth did ease slightly in the second half. DS Smith reported a "record" return on sales margin of 10.2%, ahead of its 8% to 10% target. As a result, it has now upped its target to 10% to 12%.Peers Smurfit Kappa and Mondi closed up 4.8% and 2.0% respectively. WM Morrison Supermarkets closed up 2.2% after the supermarket chain said it has expanded its same-day delivery service with e-commerce giant Amazon.com to more UK cities.The "Morrisons at Amazon" delivery service is currently available to Amazon Prime Now customers in four cities: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, and parts of London and the home counties. Under the agreement, Morrisons products shopped online are picked up at a local Morrisons store and delivered by Amazon. Morrisons said the same day delivery service will now be rolled out to other UK cities, including Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Portsmouth.Tesco closed up 0.9% after the UK's largest supermarket reported a "strong start" to its financial year, with softness in Central Europe offset by stronger showings from Asian operations and wholesaler Booker, as well as a bumper Easter in the UK.Total group sales excluding VAT and fuel were up 0.4% at constant exchange rates to GBP13.98 billion in the 13 weeks to May 25, rising 0.2% on a like-for-like basis. At actual exchange rates, sales were up 0.4%. Hargreaves Lansdown's Nick Hyett said: "The income statement looks stronger, with margins and sales heading upwards. Much of the heavy lifting's been done on the balance sheet too. Debt has fallen so leverage is back within the target range and a property reshuffle means Tesco now owns, rather than rents, close to 60% of its stores."While there are plenty of hurdles still to clear, overall we think Tesco's recovered well from 2015's nadir. That means focus can shift to the dividend plans."At the other end of the large cap index, Persimmon closed down 4.9%, WPP closed down 3.6%, and 3i Group ended down 2.5%. The stocks went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. Marks & Spencer closed down 1.8% after the food, clothing and homewares retailer confirmed the underwriters of its rights issue have found subscribers for the remaining shares of its rights issue. Earlier Thursday, M&S said its 1-for-5 rights issue had received acceptances of 85%. Of the 325 million shares offered, M&S has got acceptances for 276.7 million.The underwriters of the rights issue are Morgan Stanley & Co International, BNP Paribas, HSBC Bank, and Shore Capital Stockbrokers.Had they not found any subscribers for the remaining 48.2 million shares, they would have had to take them up themselves. The pound was quoted at USD1.2683 at the London equities close, down from USD1.2727 at the close Wednesday, as frontunner Boris Johnson stormed to victory in the first round of the Conservative party leadership contest. The former foreign secretary looks almost certain to advance to the final stage of the contest after receiving 114 votes from Tory MPs in the opening round of the leadership battle - 71 votes clear of his closest rival Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The three lowest scoring candidates - Mark Harper, Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey - were eliminated from the race having failed to secure at least 17 votes necessary to progress, leaving seven MPs still in the running.In the next round of voting on June 18, candidates will need 33 votes to remain in contention for the top job.City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta said: "Pound traders are less than thrilled at the prospect of Boris Johnson taking the helm, particularly after Parliament blocked an attempt by Labour to prevent a no deal Brexit. With Johnson in the lead, the pound will struggle to make any meaningful moves higher. "Given that he is the polls favourite to win, we don't envisage any large scale sell off for the time being, his victory is now pretty much baked into the price. That said, Boris does have the power to send the pound back towards USD1.20 should he regain his enthusiasm for a no deal Brexit."The euro stood at USD1.1275 at the European equities close, down from USD1.1320 late Wednesday, after eurozone industrial production fell at the fastest rate in four months in April, Industrial production declined 0.5% month-on-month in April, following a 0.4% fall in March figures from Eurostat showed.The latest decrease in production was the worst since December last year, when it was down 0.9%. The latest decline was driven by 1.7% fall in durable consumer goods. Capital goods and intermediate goods fell 1.4% and 1.0%, respectively.On a year-on-year basis, industrial production fell 0.4% in April, following a 0.7% decline in the previous month.Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close amid optimism that weaker inflation will lead the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in the near future.The DJIA was up 0.2%, the S&P 500 index up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.5%.On the economic front, a Labor Department report showed bigger than expected decreases in US import and export prices.The Labor Department said import prices fell by 0.3% in May following a revised 0.1% uptick in April.Economists had expected imports prices to dip by 0.2% compared to the 0.2% increase originally reported for the previous month. Additionally, the report said export prices edged down by 0.2% in May after inching up by a revised 0.1% in April.Export prices had been expected to slip by 0.1% compared to the 0.2% growth originally reported for the previous month. With the bigger than expected monthly decreases, import and export prices both showed their biggest annual declines in over two years.Brent oil was quoted at USD61.80 a barrel at the equities close, up from USD60.85 at the close Wednesday, after oil tankers reportedly came under attack in the Gulf of Oman.Iranian state news media reported that multiple tankers had been seriously damaged. A shipping industry official was quoted as saying that at least two tankers had been hit. This follows incidents from around a month ago when four vessels were sabotaged in the same region.Gold was quoted at USD1,336.70 an ounce at the London equities close, marginally higher than USD1,334.28 late Wednesday.The economic events calendar on Friday has China retail sales numbers at 0300 BST, Italy inflation readings at 1000 BST and US retail sales at 1330 BST. In addition, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks at the Women in Banking & Finance 22nd Anniversary Awards for Achievement lunch at 1355 BST. The UK corporate on Friday has a trading statement from recruiter SThree. London Close is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com