LONDON (Alliance News) - London stock prices fell throughout the morning on Friday, sending the FTSE 100 index towards its 2018 low, after US tech giants Alphabet and Amazon posted disappointing earnings and
Royal Bank of Scotland hinted at concerns over Brexit.RBS was in the red after its own results fell short of analyst expectations, while
International Consolidated Airlines was the biggest blue-chip gainer."European equity markets have endured another severe sell-off. US index futures plunged overnight on the back of updates from a couple of tech giants, namely Amazon and Alphabet, and the ripple out effect has spanned the globe. This sell-off began in the US, and it is likely that US markets will dictate worldwide sentiment," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden.The FTSE 100 was down 1.6%, or 108.28 points, at 6,895.82 by midday. The index had hit its lowest point of the year so far at 6,888.69 on March 26. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was a 1.3% lower, down 235.87 points at 18,295.66 and the AIM All-Share was down 1.1% at 962.32.The Cboe UK 100 was down 1.5% at 11,689.78, while the Cboe UK 250 was down 1.3% at 16,552.08. The Cboe UK Small Companies was 0.5% lower at 11,451.20.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 2.2% and 1.8%, respectively.The euro area economy is projected to grow at a slightly slower pace this year and next, according to survey of professional forecasters, published by the European Central Bank.Real GDP growth expectations revised down for 2018 to 2% from 2.2% and that for next year to 1.8% from 1.9%. Meanwhile, the estimate for 2020 was retained at 1.6%. Average longer-term expectations for real GDP growth remained unchanged at 1.6%.Wall Street is pointed towards a sharply lower open on Friday. The Dow Jones is called down 1.0%, the S&P 500 down 1.5% and the Nasdaq down 2.7%.Before the US open are results from household products company Colgate-Palmolive. The economic events calendar on Friday has US third-quarter GDP figures at 1330 BST.Dragging on the FTSE 100 at midday was
RBS, down 4.6%. Net interest margin was down by 8 basis points quarter-on-quarter to 1.93% reflecting one off items, continued competitive pressure and higher average liquidity balances. This was worse than analysts had expected.For the nine months ended September, RBS pretax profit decreased to GBP2.79 billion from GBP2.82 billion the year before. More positively for RBS, pretax profit in the three months ended September increased 10% to GBP961 million. RBS CET1 ratio at the end of September was 16.7%, up from 16.1% at June 30. The increase in the quarter reflects a reduction in risk-weighted assets and the bank's increased profit.RBS also said NatWest Markets has received approval from Dutch regulator - DNB - to re-purpose its existing banking licence, allowing the investment bank to be "operationally ready to serve its European Economic Area customers" after the UK's departure from the EU.
WPP was down 4.4% after Kepler Cheuvreux cut its price target to Hold from Buy. On Thursday, the advertising giant had reported a drop in third-quarter revenue due to slowdown in its North American businesses and said it intends to sell a stake in its market research unit Kantar Group.Among the risers on Friday was
IAG, up 3.1%. The British Airways parent delivered positive third-quarter earnings, with pretax profit of EUR1.38 billion, up from a restated EUR1.23 billion pretax profit in the comparative quarter a year ago.Pretax profit in the nine months to the end of September increased 8.6% to EUR3.04 billion from EUR1.99 billion.IAG said it carried over 86 million passengers, up 7.7% from last year. Moreover, passenger load factor, which measures how full a carrier's planes are, during the nine-month period rose by 1.0 percentage point to 83.9%.Available seat kilometres, a measure of the airline's capacity, was up 6.6% to 89.78 billion from 84.21 billion.Also in the green was
Randgold Resources, up 1.3%. After the market close on Thursday, the miner said it has got operations at the Ivory Coast's Tongon mine back to normal following lengthy industrial action. As a result, Tongon is set to reach its revised 230,000 ounces of gold production guidance for 2018.Randgold also said exploration work has extended strikes at the Djinni and Mercator targets at Tongon, and also delineated mineralisation and alteration along the Badenou corridor between the two targets.In the mid-caps,
888 Holdings gained 1.8% after Investec raised the gambling company's rating to Hold from Sell. On the other side of the FTSE 250 index was
Tullow Oil, down 5.6%, as it transferred its 25% interest in the PEL30 licence in Namibia to
Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas.Eco said it received formal notice from Tullow Namibia, a subsidiary of Tullow Oil, confirming its inability to either enter into the second renewal period under the PEL30 licence agreement or to make a financial commitment to drilling on the block.Therefore, Tullow decided to withdraw from the joint venture agreement. Eco now holds a 58% stake in the Namibian licence. Eco shares were down 3.9%. Elsewhere,
Imaginatik was up 27%, after securing a GBP250,000 investment from Eight Capital Partners. The investment will form two parts: GBP160,000 will be invested immediately by subscribing for 14.5 million new shares at a price of 1.1p per share, which represents about 30% of Imaginatik. The second part will come through the acquisition of GBP90,000 of convertible loan notes to be issued by Imaginatik.The management software firm will also look to raise another GBP250,000 through an underwritten open offer at the same price as the Eighth Capital placing.
Great Western Mining was down 30% after the miner reported slower-than-anticipated drilling at its M2-Sharktooth prospect in Nevada.The company said its team is now in a "race against time" to reach the primary objective of the M2-Sharktooth zone before the full onset of winter, after which Great Western said it may need to suspend operations until March next year.
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