LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Ex-Dividends, TUI Weigh As Focus Turns To UK GDP

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 ended Thursday's session lower, though moved off its worst levels of the day, with ex-dividend stocks and TUI weighing on the blue-chip index.It was a better day for the FTSE 250, boosted by a well-received set of half-year results from Cineworld. This helped to offset declines for Card Factory and G4S. The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.5%, or 34.88 points at 7,741.77, having hit an intraday low of 7,714.52. The FTSE 250 ended up 0.2%, or 35.57 points, at 20,806.21, and the AIM All-Share closed up 0.4%, or 4.55 points, at 1,089.23.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.4% at 13,130.56, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.4% at 18,917.89, and the Cboe Small Companies ended 0.3% lower at 12,326.41.The pound was quoted at USD1.2873 at the London equities close Thursday, soft compared to USD1.2888 at the close on Wednesday."All in all it has been a quiet session, with much of the focus being on the pound despite the currency not actually moving that much. Things might be different on Friday, however," commented Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell, referring to the latest UK gross domestic product reading due along with US inflation data.Second quarter UK GDP, due at 0930 BST on Friday, is expected to grow 0.4% quarter-on-quarter, following a first quarter reading of 0.2%. On an annual basis, the economy is expected to have grown 1.3%, accelerating slightly from 1.2%.Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The second quarter was altogether brighter, with good weather, a Royal Wedding and the World Cup all driving consumer behaviour. The latest ONS retail sales data suggests that food and drink sales have been positively impacted by the sunshine and the football.""If tomorrow's growth number proves disappointing, the Bank of England could find some pretty instant egg on its face after its decision to raise interest rates last week. However the main indicators suggest a rebound from the weak first quarter is on the cards," he added.Due alongside this is UK manufacturing and industrial production data and the trade balance. Tomorrow, at 1330 BST, is the US consumer price index.In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended flat, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.3%.The euro stood at USD1.1573 at the European equities close Thursday, against USD1.1599 at the same time on Wednesday.Stocks in New York were mostly higher at the London equities close, with the DJIA flat, the S&P 500 index up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite rising 0.3%. After Wall Street closes, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp releases earnings. In US data on Thursday, producer prices were, unexpectedly, unchanged in July on the month before. This was compared to a 0.3% rise in June. Economists had expected producer prices to grow by 0.2% in July.The unchanged reading on producer prices came as a 0.1% uptick by the index for final demand goods was offset by a 0.1% dip in prices for final demand services.Compared to the same month a year ago, producer prices in July were up by 3.3%, reflecting a modest slowdown from the 3.4% increase in June.In commodities, Brent oil was quoted at USD72.15 a barrel at the London equities close Thursday from USD72.33 late Wednesday.Gold was quoted at USD1,213.90 an ounce at the London equities close Thursday against USD1,210.35 at the close on Wednesday.Ending at the bottom of the FTSE 100 on Thursday was BT Group, down 4.6% as the stock went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout from the telecommunications firm.Also ex-dividend on Thursday were blue-chip heavyweights such as oil major BP, miner Rio Tinto, and Smirnoff vodka owner Diageo. The companies closed down 2.1%, 1.8% and 1.2% respectively.TUI shed 2.5% - paring losses as it traded nearly 10% lower earlier on Thursday - after reporting a fall in profit for the third quarter. Nonetheless, the travel operator backed its annual guidance.For the three months to the end of June, TUI recorded a pretax profit of EUR147.5 million, down from EUR203.3 million recorded in the comparative period a year ago, on revenue of EUR5.02 billion and EUR4.78 billion, respectively. The drop in quarterly profit was blamed upon a decline in financial income and increased cost of sales. The rise in revenue was credited to 5% growth in customer volumes, a good portfolio performance, and additional hotel and cruise ship capacity. In the FTSE 250, gains for Cineworld and Capita managed to offset declines for Card Factory and G4S.Cinema chain Cineworld climbed 9.5% to be crowned the best mid-cap performer on Thursday after seeing interim profit jump, bolstered by the acquisition of US peer Regal Entertainment Group. Pretax profit more than doubled to USD160.2 million from USD60.5 million a year before as revenue quadrupled to USD1.86 billion from USD528.7 million. The second largest cinema chain in the world, by number of screens, posted a 12% increase in UK revenue to USD353.7 million from USD317.0 million despite a 2.7% decrease in admissions to 25.6 millionCapita gained 5.6% after Jefferies raised its rating on the outsourcer to Buy from Hold."Although we remain cautious regarding UK outsourcing the Software division has a brighter revenue outlook," said Jefferies.Card Factory shed 9.7% after warning annual earnings will be lower than last year as "extreme" weather in the UK knocked sales over the first half of its financial year.The cards retailer said for the first half to July 31, total group sales grew by 3.2% compared to 6.1% growth a year before. Like-for-like sales were down 0.2% compared to 3.1% growth in the first half of the year before.Chief Executive Karen Hubbard said: "We continue to experience a weak consumer environment, made all the more challenging by the impact of this year's extreme weather conditions on high street footfall."The retailer said it now sees underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the year ending January 2019 to be within a range of GBP89 million to GBP91 million.For the financial year ended in 2018, the company posted underlying Ebitda of GBP94.0 million. This, in turn, had been 4.6% lower than the year before.G4S ended the session 7.4% lower after the security services provider reported a slump in interim profit, as revenue declined. The firm said pretax profit decreased 37% in the six months ended June to GBP139 million from GBP219 million a year before. Revenue decreased 7.5% to GBP3.67 billion from GBP3.97 billion.Profit fell due to weaker trading in the company's Europe & Middle East Secure Solutions division as well as lower revenue and increased business costs in its Cash Solutions division. G4S's revenue suffered following business disposals in Hungary, Israel and its Youth Services business in the US.Elsewhere on the Main Market, Kerry Group rose 2.1% after the Richmond sausage maker reported a slight increase in interim profit and narrowed its 2018 guidance.Kerry recorded a pretax profit of EUR258.7 million for the first half of the year, a 0.8% increase from EUR256.6 million the year before. Revenue grew 1.4% to EUR3.23 billion from EUR3.18 billion.The company updated its annual guidance, now seeing adjusted earnings per share growth between 7% to 10% at constant currency, compared to a forecast of between 6% to 10% previously.In a quiet corporate calendar on Friday, Volution Group and RM Secured Direct Lending release half year results while Vitec Group puts out a trading statement.