LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE Ends Down As Trump's Tariff Decision Awaited

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended lower on Thursday as investors wait to see if US President Donald Trump carries through on a plan to slap further duties on China."All in all it's been a pretty dull session, with anxiety over the global trade situation preventing a rebound, but without any new developments to spark another sell-off. That could change overnight, however, if Donald Trump decides to make his long-reported fresh round of tariffs on USD200 billion in Chinese imports official," commented Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.Centrica ended as the best performer in the FTSE 100 on Thursday following a price cap proposal from the UK energy regulator which was less harsh than analysts had feared, with Melrose Industries ending in second place.The FTSE 100 index tumbled 0.9%, or 64.32 points, to close at 7,318.96. This marked the blue-chip index's worst closing price since April.The FTSE 250 ended down 0.5%, or 104.98 points, at 20,283.49. The AIM All-Share, however, closed 0.2% higher, or 2.01 points, at 1,103.81.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 1.0% at 12,388.95, the Cboe UK 250 closed 0.4% lower at 18,422.30, and the Cboe Small Companies declined 0.2% to 12216.00The pound was quoted at USD1.2934 at the London equities close Thursday, compared to USD1.2903 at the close on Wednesday as it continued to climb, having been quoted at USD1.2823 late Tuesday.Sterling rose on Wednesday after a Bloomberg report said Germany is ready to accept a less detailed agreement on Britain's future trade ties with the EU in an effort to get a Brexit deal done.The currency continued to firm on Thursday despite claims Michel Barnier said Theresa May's Chequers proposals were "dead". The European Commission said the EU's chief negotiator had been clear in setting out the EU's views on Chequers and the need for further talks on the areas that "still create problems".Barnier and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab were meeting in Brussels on Thursday, as the EU insisted there were "positive elements" to the Chequers Brexit plan.The pound was also helped Thursday afternoon as the dollar declined following weak private sector employment data, coming just a day before the closely-watched nonfarm payrolls.Data from the payroll processor ADP showed that US private sector employment climbed by 163,000 jobs in August after jumping by a revised 217,000 jobs in July.Economists had expected an increase of 190,000 jobs compared to the spike of 219,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.Focus will remain in the US on Thursday as President Trump is set to impose tariffs on another USD200 billion of Chinese imports as soon as a public comment period ends later in the day.China has already promised to retaliate if the duties go ahead. The two countries have so far slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth USD50 billion. US tariffs already imposed apply to Chinese goods such as semiconductor chips and machinery parts. Chinese duties affect a range of US agricultural products as well as petrol, vehicles and medical equipment, among other things.In other trade news, Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the country is making "good progress" on the revision of the North American trade pact with the US, but talks will continue to resolve remaining issues.Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close, with the DJIA down 0.2%, the S&P 500 index down 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite down 1.0%. In European equities on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 0.3%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended down 0.7%.The euro stood at USD1.1621 at the European equities close Thursday, flat against USD1.1619 at the same time on Wednesday.In commodities, Brent oil was quoted at USD76.40 a barrel at the London equities close Thursday from USD77.29 late Wednesday.Gold was quoted at USD1,199.15 an ounce at the London equities close Thursday against USD1,196.77 at the close on Wednesday.Finishing as the best performer in the FTSE 100 on Thursday was British Gas parent Centrica, advancing 5.0%. Peer SSE ended up 0.8%, paring some earlier gains.The Office of Gas & Electricity Markets said on Thursday its price cap proposals will result in 11 million households in the UK a getting "fairer deal" for their energy.Ofgem believes customers on the most expensive tariffs would save over GBP120 a year, whilst customers on "poor value" default deals could save GBP75 a year on average. In total, Ofgem expects its proposed price cap of GBP1,136 to save UK consumers around GBP1 billion."A price cap which will limit the amount Centrica's British Gas operation can charge customers hardly seems like cause for celebration, but the key point is that it will address the uncertainty which has dogged the stock in the last couple of years," commented Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.Melrose Industries gained 4.8% as its interim results showed the acquisition of former FTSE 100 constituent GKN has got off to a good start."Whilst we are still in the early days of our GKN ownership, significant progress has already been made. We have significantly reduced central functions and agreed strategic plans with operational management, who are now focused on implementation," said Melrose.For the six months to the end of June, Melrose recorded a pretax loss of GBP303 million, compared with a pretax profit of GBP48 million in the same period a year ago, despite revenue more than doubling to GBP2.94 billion from GBP1.09 billion.Acquisition and disposal costs totalled GBP71 million, multiplied from GBP2 million a year ago. Restructuring and other associated costs arising from changes in business strategy totalled GBP128 million versus GBP25 million.Stripping out acquisition and other exceptional costs, pretax profit rose to GBP240 million from GBP131 million. On a pro-forma basis, including GKN for the entire six-month period, Melrose reported pretax profit of GBP401 million on revenue of GBP6.20 billion.GKN shareholders voted in favour of Melrose's hostile GBP8.4 billion takeover in April. Melrose on Thursday said GKN offers an "outstanding opportunity" which is meeting management expectations, with "no black holes found".Go-Ahead Group, ending up 12% and Sirius Minerals, falling 16%, topped and tailed the FTSE 250.Transport operator Go-Ahead, for the year to June 30, saw pretax profit grow to GBP145.7 million from GBP136.8 million last year, though revenue dipped to GBP3.46 billion from GBP3.48 billion. The company recorded an exceptional gain of GBP25.1 million in the year due to a change in the valuation of its pension liabilities.Looking ahead, the company said it expects to deliver a "robust" performance for its recently-commenced financial year. The positive outlook gave a boost to peer FirstGroup, which closed up 5.3%.Sirius Minerals, meanwhile, tumbled as it upped its cost guidance for the polyhalite project in North Yorkshire. The miner's stage 2 funding requirement has increased by between USD400 million and USD600 million, largely due to increased costs for its Mineral Transport System tunnel.Also ending lower among the mid-caps was Weir, declining 8.6% as the oil & gas-focused engineer warned there was a "considerable softening" in demand for original equipment during August.Genus ended down 7.0% after the animal genetics company reported a fall in annual profit, hit by a reduction in the non-cash fair value of its biological assets. For the year to June 30, the company's pretax profit declined 81% to GBP7.8 million as its net IAS 41 biological asset was marked down by GBP28.7 million in non-cash fair value. This compares with a GBP1.1 million reduction the year before. "In the short-term, Genus's customers face a more challenging external environment due to growing barriers to international trade and the recent spread of African Swine Fever to China. Notwithstanding this uncertainty, Genus anticipates further financial and strategic progress in 2019," the company said.In the corporate calendar on Friday are annual results from emerging markets-focused investment manager Ashmore Group and a trading statement from pub operator Greene King.In the economic calendar, German industrial production is at 0700 BST with the trade balance, exports and imports due at the same time. The same data is due from France at 0745 BST. In the UK are Halifax house prices at 0830 BST and consumer inflation expectations at 0930 BST.In the eurozone, second quarter GD is due at 1000 BST and headlining the economic calendar are nonfarm payrolls from the US at 1330 BST, with the unemployment rate and average hourly earnings all due at the same time.Nonfarm payrolls are seen picking up to 191,000 in August from 157,000, while average hourly earnings growth is seen steady at an annual rate of 2.7%. The unemployment rate is forecast to edge down to 3.8% from 3.9%.