LONDON MARKET OPEN: Sainsbury's Leads Fallers As Asda Merger Thwarted

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 started Thursday's session in the red, dragged down by losses for J Sainsbury, Taylor Wimpey, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.The FTSE 100 was down 52.77 points, or 0.7%, at 7,418.98 early Thursday. The FTSE 250 index was down 90.83 points, or 0.5%, at 19,902.84, while the AIM All-Share was down 0.2% at 961.29.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.7% at 12579.68. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 17809.69, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11570.66.J Sainsbury slipped 6.2% to sit at the bottom of the FTSE 100 after the UK Competition & Markets Authority blocked the supermarket's proposed tie-up with Walmart's Asda. Following the decision, Sainsbury's, Walmart and Asda mutually agreed to terminate the deal.The CMA said the deal would leave UK shoppers worse off due to price rises and a lower quality of service as it resulted in both a national and local lessening of competition.Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA inquiry group, said: "We have concluded that there is no effective way of addressing our concerns, other than to block the merger."Sainsbury's Chief Executive Mike Coupe responded, saying the CMA is "effectively taking GBP1 billion out of customers' pockets"."Sainsbury's is a great business, and I am confident in our strategy. We are focused on offering our customers great quality, value and service and making shopping with us as convenient as possible," said Coupe.Taylor Wimpey was down 6.0% as it reported a strong sales rate but warned on build costs.The UK housing market has remained stable, allowing the firm to achieve a "record" sales rate and "solid" forward order book. However, Taylor Wimpey did note that it has seen increased build cost pressures, crimping margins.Taylor Wimpey said average private sales for the year-to-date were 1.03 per outlet per week, up from 0.85 a year ago, ahead of expectations for 2019. Meanwhile, build-cost inflation for the year is expected to be around 5%.The company said it remains on track to meet its annual expectations, with full-year volumes to be slightly higher year-on-year but margins slightly lower given the greater build-cost inflation.Barclays dipped 1.4% after it reported a "resilient" first-quarter performance, though the period brought "challenging markets" for its Corporate & Investment Bank.The lender reported pretax profit for the three months ended March of GBP1.48 billion compared to a GBP236 million loss a year before.Excluding litigation and conduct costs, however, Barclays's pretax profit decreased 11% to GBP1.54 billion from GBP1.73 billion the year before. The lender attributed this drop in part to a "challenging income environment" for its Corporate & Investment Bank. Barclays' total income was down 2.1% to GBP4.25 billion with net operating income decreasing 5.3% to GBP4.80 billion from GBP5.07 billion. Barclays net interest income increased, however, rising 3.2% to GBP2.26 billion from GBP2.19 billion the year before.Royal Bank of Scotland shares declined 1.3% on news Ross McEwan is to step down as chief executive of the state-backed lender once a replacement has been found.McEwan has given 12 months' notice of his departure, and he will also stay until "an orderly handover" has taken place. McEwan became CEO of RBS in October 2013, having previously been head of the company's UK Retail unit. Before that, he led Commonwealth Bank of Australia's retail banking business. In the FTSE 250, Sirius Minerals gained 4.4% after signing a ten-year distribution agreement with a Munich-headquartered agribusiness group.Sirius has entered the exclusive deal with BayWa Agri Supply & Trade, a wholly owned subsidiary of BayWa AG, for the distribution of POLY4 fertiliser into Europe."The European fertilizer market is highly advanced and the second largest in the world behind China," said Sirius Minerals Chief Executive Chris Fraser. "We are delighted to be partnering with a leading agribusiness to distribute our POLY4 product into this key market."In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were down 0.2% and 0.1% respectively in early dealings. In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.5%. However, in China, the Shanghai Composite ended down 2.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 0.7% lower in late trade.The Bank of Japan overnight trimmed its economic growth forecast for the current financial year amid economic slowdowns overseas.The central bank expects the world's third-largest economy to expand at an annualized rate of 0.8% in the year ending March 2020, downgraded from January estimates of a 0.9% growth, according to a statement released after a two-day monetary policy meeting.Meanwhile, the BOJ also decided on Thursday to keep its ultra-easing monetary policy to prop up the economy and combat deflation.Elsewhere in the economic calendar on Thursday there is the CBI industrial trends survey at 1100 BST followed by US durable goods orders at 1330 BST.In the UK, pressure is mounting on Theresa May to name a date to quit as prime minister, after an influential committee of backbenchers demanded "clarity" over what she will do if her EU withdrawal deal fails.The chair of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, said on Wednesday it would be "a surprising response" if May suggested she might stay on as late as December this year.The threat of an imminent challenge to May's position as Conservative leader was lifted as the committee's executive decided not to change party rules which protect her from a no-confidence vote until December.The pound was quoted at USD1.2912 early Thursday, versus USD1.2945 late Wednesday.The National Institute of Economic & Social Research nudged down its UK growth forecasts and predicted the central bank will keep interest rates on hold in 2019.The NIESR cut its UK GDP forecast for 2019 to 1.4% from the 1.5% seen in February, while the prediction for 2020 was also cut by 0.1 of a percentage point, to 1.6% from 1.7%. The NIESR forecasts growth will accelerate to 1.9% in 2021, and remain at this rate in both 2022 and 2023.In 2018, the UK economy grew 1.4%.At the same time, the NIESR revised down its outlook for the Bank of England's interest rate path. The London-based think tank now sees Bank Rate staying at 0.75% through 2019 and being raised to 1.00% in August 2020, as opposed to August 2019, as predicted before.