LONDON MARKET MIDDAY: Pound Softens Ahead Of May's Crunch Brexit Vote

LONDON (Alliance News) - News of China's economic stimulus lifted London stocks on Tuesday, with the overseas earnings-heavy FTSE 100 further helped as the pound weakened ahead of this evening's Brexit vote.The FTSE 100 index was up 20.05 points, or 0.3%, at 6,875.07 while the FTSE 250 was up 24.04 points, or 0.1%, at 18,441.62. The AIM All-Share was down 0.5% at 899.42.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.4% at 11,671.34, while the Cboe UK 250 was 0.1% higher at 16,479.07. However, the Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.3% at 11,132.75."European stocks have started the day off in positive fashion, taking the lead from their Asian counterparts in the wake of a Chinese announcement that they will begin to implement a raft of measures aimed at stimulating their economy," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.He explained: "Yesterday's decline in trade and foreign direct investment certainly shook some investors, yet with the Chinese government laying out plans to reduce the burden on firms through tax rebates and the reduction of VAT, we have seen markets react with optimism over the economic boost such a move could provide."Locally, focus is on Tuesday evening's crunch Brexit vote. Theresa May is braced for a potentially crushing Commons defeat after last minute wrangling to rustle up support for her Brexit deal apparently failed to win round critics.With more than 100 Tory lawmakers having declared their opposition to the plan, there was speculation the government could go down to one of the heaviest defeats of modern times.The prime minister has insisted she is focused on winning the vote - telling Conservative rebels on Monday evening they risked handing the keys of No 10 to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.However, The Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted one Cabinet source as saying it would be "hard for her to carry on" if she lost by more than 100 votes."With Hilary Benn withdrawing an amendment that had been touted as one reason Theresa May could garner a few votes, there is a growing feeling that this could be an embarrassing defeat for the PM. For the most part the question seems to be what next rather than any consideration that this bill could actually achieve enough votes to receive approval from parliament," commented IG's Mahony.The pound was quoted at USD1.2845 at midday as the vote looms, down from USD1.2890 late Monday.With earnings season in the US now underway, Wall Street is called for a positive open on Tuesday ahead of fourth quarter figures from banks JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.The Dow Jones is called up 0.3%, the S&P 500 up 0.2% and the Nasdaq up 0.4%. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 index in Paris was up 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.1% higher at midday.Data from Germany's Federal Statistical Office showed the economy grew at its slowest rate in five years.Gross domestic product rose 1.5% year-on-year, having expanded 2.2% in 2017. The pace exceeded the average 1.2% growth rate of the last 10 years, though growth was the weakest since 2013, when the economy advanced just 0.5%.While the Germany economy had its worst year since 2013, the country looks to have avoided a technical recession, said ING. "It currently looks as if the German economy could get away with one black eye but these days, economic strength in Germany doesn't come effortlessly," commented Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING.In the FTSE 100, miners were higher on news of Chinese stimulus while defence firm BAE Systems gained after a broker rating upgrade. BAE was up 1.3% after Barclays raised its rating on the fight jet maker to Equal Weigh from Underweight.Meanwhile, commodity-exposed stocks such as Rio Tinto and Glencore were both climbing 0.9% after China signaled some supportive measures to counter slowing growth.This comes after data on Monday showed China's exports and imports in December declined at the worst rate in two years. Exports dropped 4.4% year-on-year in December, substantially worse than the 3% rise predicted by economists. Imports decreased 7.6% from a year ago, defying expectations for a 5% rise.Gambling firms were gathered at the bottom of both the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 after a report released on Monday showed the US Department of Justice has reversed its stance on online betting. In 2011, the DoJ had ruled the 1961 Wire Act was only related to sports betting online, having been asked a year before that by the Criminal Division to make a judgement.In a report compiled November 2, 2018, but released on Monday, the DoJ said: "This office concluded in 2011 that the prohibitions of the Wire Act in 18 USC 1084 are limited to sports gambling.""Having been asked to reconsider, we now conclude the statutory prohibitions are not uniformly limited to gambling on sporting events or contests."Blue-chip betting firms Paddy Power Betfair and GVC Holdings were both down 1.8%. Among the mid-caps, William Hill was down 1.6% while online gaming operator 888 Holdings sank 7.0%.By far the worst performer in the FTSE 250, however, was subprime lender Provident Financial after issuing a profit warning. The stock was down 18% at midday.The group expects to report exceptional costs of GBP55 million in 2018, associated with the implementation of its home credit recovery plan, intangible and tangible asset write offs, redundancy and consultancy costs, and non-cash pension charges. "Moneybarn has continued to perform well and CCD has performed in line with internal plans during the last quarter of the year. Vanquis Bank has delivered further customer and receivables growth although impairment has been modestly higher than expected," the company said. Provident expects profit for 2018 to come in towards the lower end of market expectations. Currently, the market forecasts the lender's pretax profit to be between GBP151 million and GBP166 million. A year ago, the company reported a GBP123.0 million pretax loss.Spirent Communications rose 18% after saying it expects to beat market expectations in 2018 after order intake and revenue increased. The company is expecting to achieve a USD75 million to USD77 million adjusted operating profit for 2018, exceeding market expectations. The company's adjusted operating profit in 2017 was USD58.9 million."We expect to exceed the market's profit expectations for the financial year 2018. We have market leading technology offerings and are well placed to optimise opportunities as they continue to arise," Spirent Chief Executive Eric Hutchinson said.