LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE Rises As Johnson Gets Set To Enter Number 10

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended higher on Tuesday with the FTSE 100 benefitting from weakness in the pound, after Boris Johnson succeeded in his political quest by winning the race to become the next UK prime minister.The FTSE 100 finished up 41.93 points higher, or 0.6%, at 7,556.86.The mid-cap FTSE 250 index ended up 104.33 points, or 0.5%, at 19,752.34, while the AIM All-Share closed up 4.35 points, or 0.5% at 902.56.The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.1% at 12,830.20, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 0.6% at 17,641.45 and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.1% at 11,071.28.City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta said: "The FTSE powered higher as Boris Johnson was declared the new Conservative Party leader and Britain's next Prime Minister, with investors mostly relieved that at least that the wait for the Tory vote was finally over. In his acceptance speech Johnson mostly repeated the messages he had given before, that he plans to deliver Brexit on time but also adding that he plans to keep Jeremy Corbyn out of power."The markets went two ways after the vote: while the FTSE picked up speed [while] the pound continued to weaken but only by a relatively modest margin as the expectation that Johnson would win has already been mostly priced into the market."In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 0.9%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended 1.6% higher.The pound was quoted at USD1.2438 at the London equities close, lower than USD1.2486 at the close Monday, after former London mayor Johnson secured a landslide victory in the Conservative Party leadership contest.Johnson won about two-thirds of the votes by 160,000 Conservative party members in the contest against Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, paving the way for him to become prime minister once Theresa May resigns on Wednesday. Addressing hundreds of party members with his trademark jauntiness, Johnson said he wanted to unite Britain and "get Brexit done" by the delayed EU exit date of October 31, with or without a deal.Johnson looks to be on a collision course with the 27 EU leaders over Brexit, and future EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen noted that "there are many different and difficult issues to tackle together. We have challenging times ahead of us."While the EU indicated that it wanted to work constructively with Johnson, it also stressed that a deal reached by outgoing prime minister Theresa May and which UK lawmakers have refused to approve, would not be renegotiated.Analysts at Capital Economics said: "Despite his hard-line stance on the campaign trail, there is no way of knowing how Boris Johnson will handle Brexit once he becomes prime minister tomorrow. But it's going to be turbulent and the chances of a no deal Brexit (and a general election and/or a Labour government) are surely higher now than they've ever been. Whatever happens, a loosening in fiscal policy appears to be baked into the cake."Overall, when it comes to Brexit, anything can happen. But the one thing that can be said with certainty is that the first three months of Boris Johnson's tenure as prime minister will be turbulent. How he deals with Brexit will probably determine whether or not he gets a second three months."In the FTSE 100, paper and packaging companies ended in the green after Mondi raised its guidance.Mondi closed up 1.7% after the firm said it sees underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for the six months to June "to be above" the EUR852 million recorded a year prior. Special item net charges after tax will be just EUR2 million, after EUR81 million booked a year ago. Basic earnings per share are guided by the packaging firm to be between 93 euro cents and 99 cents, which would be increases year-on-year of 28% and 37% respectively. Peers DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa closed up 3.4% and 3.7%, respectively, in a positive read-across.Whitbread ended the worst performer, down 3.0% after Bernstein cut the hospitality firm to Underperform from Market Perform. Shares in Whitbread fell on Monday after the completion of its GBP2 billion share buyback. Share buybacks give a short-term lift to a share price as it reduces the amount shares in issue - facilitating a temporary boost to earnings per share. Supermarkets also ended in the red after Kantar data showed all of the "Big Four" grocers, Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, and Asda lost market share in the 12 weeks to July 14. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrison's ended down 2.3%, 1.7%, and 0.5%, respectively. Tesco's sales declined 2.0% in the period to GBP7.49 billion, with market share slipping to 27.2% from 27.6%. Sainsbury's sales fell 2.3% to GBP4.24 billion, and market share reduced to 15.3% from 15.5%. Morrisons sales fell 2.6% to GBP2.85 billion, with market share declining to 10.3% from 10.5%. Walmart Inc's Asda sales were down 2.0% to GBP4.11 billion, and market share dipped to 14.9% from 15.1%.In the FTSE 250, Beazley ended the best performer, up 5.2% after the insurer reported a surge in interim profit, though underwriting has continued to be held back. Beazley's pretax profit came in at USD166.4 million for the six months to June, almost triple the USD57.5 million recorded a year prior, "buoyed by a strong investment return". Gross written premiums increased by 12% to USD1.48 billion, with net written premiums rising 11% to USD1.23 billion. Beazley's return on equity was 19%, from 6% the year before, with the combined ratio at 100% from 95%. The combined ratio is a measure of an insurer's operating performance, and is a ratio of total costs to total net earned premium, with a ratio of under 100% indicating an underwriting profit.The euro stood at USD1.1155 at the European equities close, lower than USD1.1217 late Monday, ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy meeting later this week.President Mario Draghi is widely expected to reveal details of the bank's response to a slowdown in activity and price growth that has hit the eurozone, prompted by trade clashes, geopolitical tensions and weakness in emerging markets.In June, the ECB adjusted down its growth and inflation forecasts for 2020-21 as the brakes on expansion showed no sign of letting up."Risks surrounding the euro area growth outlook continue to be tilted to the downside," board member Benoit Coeure said in a speech in Paris last week.Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada said: "Market participants are now looking ahead to the upcoming European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. Fresh Eurozone PMIs will be published tomorrow and German Ifo will come in on Thursday morning. These may trigger some volatility in the euro, although which direction the single currency will head to will almost certainly depend on the ECB. The central bank has been pushing out its rate hike expectations, but the markets will now be wondering whether it will instead talk up the prospects of loosening - rather than tightening - its monetary policy, and soon. "With the Fed set to cut rates in the last week of July, and other major central banks having already loosened their policies or turned dovish, the ECB could very well prepare the markets for more stimulus or even negative interest rates. The euro could drop sharply if that turns out to be the case, while if the ECB is not as dovish as many expect them to be then watch out for a short squeeze rally."Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close amid solid earnings reports and after congressional leaders and the White House reached a budget agreement.The DJIA was up 0.4%, the S&P 500 index up 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%.Coca-Cola Co said second quarter profit and revenue both grew as all units saw underlying growth, in particular in Latin America.For the three months ended June 28, pretax profit widened 3.7% to USD3.05 billion from USD2.94 billion the year prior. This was after revenue rose 6.2% to USD10.00 billion from USD9.42 billion the year before. For the full year, the soda giant expects organic revenue to grow 5% on the year prior and 12% on a comparable currency-neutral basis. Operating income, meanwhile, is expected to deliver between 11% and 12% growth on a comparable currency-neutral basis.The stock was up 5.7% in New York. Personal care products maker Kimberly-Clark raised its outlook for the full year amid strong profit and organic sales growth in the second quarter.Kimberly-Clark, which owns brands like Huggies and Kleenex, expects organic sales growth of 3%, up from its previous guidance of 2% growth. For the second quarter to June 30, Kimberly-Clark said it saw strong organic-sales growth, gross margin improvement and higher earnings per share.The stock was up 0.7% in New York. Elsewhere, US President Donald Trump and congressional leaders agreed to a bipartisan budget agreement that will boost federal spending by USD320 billion and suspend the debt limit beyond the next presidential election.The deal, should it pass Congress as expected, would allow the federal government to borrow more money and avoid a disastrous default in the coming months, while significantly raising budget caps on defense and domestic outlays.Brent oil was quoted at USD63.14 a barrel at the London equities close compared to USD63.20 at the close Monday. Gold was quoted at USD1,421.60 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,426.40 late Monday.The economic events calendar on Wednesday has PMI readings from France, Germany, the eurozone and US at 0815 BST, 0830 BST, 0900 BST and 1445 BST respectively. The UK corporate calendar on Wednesday has interim results from broadcaster ITV, events and publishing company Informa, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, speciality chemicals company Croda International and high street lender Metro Bank. London Close is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com