LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: FTSE 100 Heads Toward 8,000; M&S To Shut Stores

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 of London large-caps continued to climb at midday on Tuesday, setting a fresh record high, with gold miners benefiting as the precious metal saw some respite. Among those rising in the mid-cap FTSE 250 at midday were Greencore, Cranswick and Rank Group, as Halfords and Inmarsat weighed at the other end.The FTSE 100 index was up 0.1%, or 11.06 points, at 7,870.23 Tuesday midday, having hit a record high of 7,887.23 earlier in the session.The FTSE 250 index was up 0.3%, or 65.13 points, at 21,202.79, having hit its own all-time intraday high of 21,243.26 in early trade. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 1,095.14.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 1.2% at 13,355.24. The Cboe UK 250 was up 1.1% at 19,425.47, and the Cboe UK Small Companies up 0.5% at 12,948.03."Record highs on the FTSE 100 are becoming a daily occurrence it seems, as the index edges on further towards the 8,000 mark. At the rate it's going, we should hit this round number by Thursday, if not earlier," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.In UK data on Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics showed the budget deficit narrowed in to the lowest April net borrowing since 2008.Public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, decreased by GBP1.6 billion to GBP7.8 billion in April. This was better than the expected level of GBP8.5 billion. At the end of April, public sector net debt totalled GBP1.77 billion or equivalent to 85.1% of UK gross domestic product.At the end of March 2018, public sector net debt, excluding public sector banks, was revised to 85.4% of GDP from 86.3%."April's public finances figures have got the new fiscal year off to a good start and suggest that the Chancellor might have more elbow room to loosen the purse strings in the Autumn Budget," said Ruth Gregory, UK economist at Capital Economics.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3455 Tuesday midday, up compared to USD1.3407 at the London equities close on Monday.Also on Tuesday, the Confederation of British Industry said manufacturing output was broadly unchanged in the three months to May as firms reported a further softening in order books.The CBI said 22% of manufacturers reported total order books to be above normal, with 25% saying they were below normal, giving a balance of minus 3%. This was the lowest since November 2016, but above the long-run average of minus 19.Meanwhile, 21% of firms said their export order books were above normal, and 13% said they were below normal, giving a balance of positive 8% - well above the long-run average of minus 19%."While global economic growth - particularly in the EU - has disappointed in the first quarter of the year, demand from overseas continues to shore up manufacturing activity in the UK, with export order books remaining well above historical average," said Anna Leach, CBI head of economic intelligence.Stock prices in New York on Tuesday were pointed to a higher open, building on Monday's strong gains.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was called up 1.4%, with the S&P 500 pointed 0.9% higher and the Nasdaq Composite seen gaining 1.0%. The three indices closed up 1.2%, 0.7% and 0.5% respectively on Monday.To come in the US economic calendar on Tuesday is the Redbook index at 1355 BST. API weekly crude oil stocks are at 2130 BST.Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg addresses EU lawmakers on Tuesday regarding the global data scandal involving the social media platform.The meeting comes as Facebook admitted last month that it had improperly shared the personal data of 87 million users with British data firm Cambridge Analytica. Up to 2.7 million of those users are from EU countries.In mainland Europe Tuesday midday, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.1% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.1%.Among those gaining in London's FTSE 100 on Tuesday were gold miners, with Fresnillo up 2.8% and Randgold Resources up 0.4%."Gold's decline has stalled, which has given precious metal miners a breathing space, but overall the difficult outlook for the commodity remains," said IG's Beauchamp."It is not clear whether the recent weakness in the dollar marks a top in the rally of the past few months, but with the market still broadly short USD it is easy to imagine that the greenback will perk up in due course," Beauchamp added.An ounce of the precious metal was quoted at USD1,294.91 at midday on Tuesday, against USD1,288.82 late Monday.Melrose Industries was 1.0% higher after JPMorgan raised the industrial turnaround specialist to its 'European Best Equity Ideas' list following its acquisition of GKN.Towards the other end of the index was Marks & Spencer, falling 2.2% after the retailer said it will close over 100 stores by 2022, almost 10% of its current total, as it restructures its UK store estate.The food, clothing and homewares seller will scale back its food store opening programme and will now open 15 fewer stores than planned for 2019 financial year. M&S plans to close 14 Clothing & Home stores in the current financial year ending March 31, 2019, as part of the store estate transformation plan.This comes ahead of the FTSE 100 retailer's annual results on Wednesday.National Grid was 0.8% lower after UK energy regulator Ofgem said it has launched an investigation into National Grid Electricity Transmission's demand forecasting for the UK electricity market.The investigation will examine whether NGET breached rules relating to its duty to operate the system in an "economic and efficient manner". This includes, but is not limited to, producing and publishing appropriate forecasts of demand. Sat atop the FTSE 250 was Greencore, 7.4% higher as it looked to an improved performance in the second half of the year after swinging to an interim loss.Greencore recorded a pretax loss of GBP18.1 million for the first half compared with pretax profit of GBP11.7 million in the year ago period, on a revenue of GBP1.24 billion and GBP1.01 billion, respectively. Profit, before tax and exceptional items, totalled GBP35.0 million versus GBP34.6 million. The sandwich maker reiterated its annual adjusted earnings per share guidance range of 14.7 pence to 15.7p. In the first half to March 31, it recorded adjusted earnings per share of 5.5p, down from 6.3p. Cranswick was 5.9% higher after it recorded "record" revenue for its recently-ended financial year.For the year ended March, the sausage maker's revenue increased 18% to GBP1.46 billion from GBP1.24 billion year-on-year. Like-for-like revenue was up 13%. The company said the increase in revenue was driven by "robust growth" across all product categories and a 30% increase in export sales.The meat producer reported pretax profit of GBP88.0 million, a 14% increase on the previous year at GBP77.5 million.Online gaming company Rank Group was 4.8% higher after it said it has acquired Spanish online bingo operator YoBingo.es for EUR52 million in cash, as part of its geographic expansion plans.Under the deal, the gambling company has bought QSB Gaming Ltd, the parent of YoBingo.es, for an initial consideration of EUR21 million. The acquisition consideration also includes further consideration of up to EUR31 million, depending upon the future performance of YoBingo.es.At the bottom of the mid-cap index, sinking 11%, was Halfords."News that Halfords' 2018 underlying pre-tax profit is down on the previous year, plus guidance for no profit growth in the new financial year, would suggest the chain has fallen off Halfords' bike and it is just peddling without moving forward," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.For the year to March 31, revenue rose 3.7% to GBP1.14 billion, up 2.0% on a like-for-like basis. Retail sales were up 2.3% like-for-like. Pretax profit slipped to GBP67.1 million from GBP71.4 million. Underlying pretax profit fell 5.0% to GBP71.6 million from GBP75.4 million.Looking ahead, the retailer said it anticipates the UK motoring market will remain "robust", with good growth prospects for the cycling market. However, Halfords said it does not expect prices to rise in cycling this year."Given this, the phasing of our remaining FX mitigation actions and decisions to accelerate investment in services and customer capabilities", Halfords said, underlying pretax profit for its current financial year is expected to be "broadly in line" with 2018's figure.Inmarsat was the worst performer, down 10% on news its monopoly in the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System sector has been ended.Iridium Communications late Monday said the International Maritime Organization's Maritime Safety Committee has recognised that it meets the criteria needed to provide GMDSS services."This is a significant achievement that ends a decades-long satellite industry monopoly in which only one company was authorized to provide satellite GMDSS service and for the first time will bring competition and truly global coverage, to mariners sailing any of the world's oceans," said Iridium.Pets at Home lost 7.2% after it reported a fall in annual profit as it looked ahead to the second year of its transformation plan.The pets products retailer said like-for-like revenue rose 5.5% in the financial year to March 29, as reported sales rose 7.8% to GBP898.9 million. The gross margin slipped to 51.7% from 54.2%, as pretax profit tumbled 17% to GBP79.6 million from GBP95.4 million.