LONDON MARKET OPEN: Weak China Trade Data Gets "Alarm Bells Ringing"

LONDON (Alliance News) - London equities opened lower on Monday as investors exercised caution after disappointing trade data from China raised fresh global economic concerns, while JD Sports Fashion defied the doom-and-gloom surrounding the UK retail sector. The FTSE 100 was down 27.99 points, or 0.4%, at 6,890.19, while the FTSE 250 was down 89.40 points, or 0.5%, at 18,452.91. The AIM All-Share was down 0.2% at 908.61.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.4% at 11,697.83, while the Cboe UK 250 was 0.3% lower at 16,530.39 and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 11,192.54.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 stock index in Paris was down 0.6%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.5% lower.In China, the Shanghai Composite index closed down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed down 1.6%. The market in Japan was shut for Coming Of Age Day holiday.China's trade surplus with the US grew to USD323 billion in 2018, official data showed, despite the ongoing trade war between the two countries. China exported USD478 billion of goods to the US - an increase of 11% on the previous year - and imported USD155 billion of goods in an increase of just 0.7%, according to figures from China's Customs Agency. China's global exports rose by 9.9% in 2018, the figures showed, while imports rose 16%. In December alone, however, China's exports unexpectedly fell 4.4% from a year earlier - the biggest monthly drop in two years - while imports also fell 7.6%, marking the biggest decline since July 2016."The Chinese trade numbers released today got all the alarm bells ringing once again. The lower export number also means lower jobs which means another direct impact on the economy. Donald Trump may be pleased to see these numbers because it shows that his policies have clearly brought China to its knees," said ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam.On the London Stock Exchange, Paddy Power Betfair was the worst blue-chip performer, down 2.3% after Barclays downgraded the bookmaker to Equal Weight from Overweight.Next was down 2.0% after Credit Suisse cut the clothing and homware retailer to Underperform from Neutral.HSBC Holdings was down 1.3% after Deutsche Bank cut the lender to Sell from Hold. In the FTSE 250, JD Sports Fashion was the best performer, up 7.0% after the sportswear retailer reported "significant progress", leading to a strong increase in sales across Black Friday and Christmas.The sportswear and equipment retailer now expects pretax profit, for its financial year ending February 2, to be "at the upper end of market expectations", which range between GBP325 million and GBP352 million. A year earlier, JD's pretax profit was GBP307.4 million.In the 48 weeks to January 5, total sales were up 15% across all the company's global shop brands, excluding the recent acquisitions of Finish Line in the US and Sport Zone in Iberia.Like-for-like sale in the same period was up by "more than 5%", JD said, driven by a positive performance from the Black Friday sales events and Christmas.JD's performance contrasted to much-more gloomy survey data from Springboard, which said Christmas no longer represents a "major trading period" for UK retailers as footfall continued to decline in December.The latest BRC/Springboard Retail Footfall Monitor figures covering the five weeks between November 25 and December 29, showed a 2.6% drop in total retail footfall on a year before, marking the thirteenth consecutive month of annual decline following a 3.2% decrease recorded in November. At the other end of the midcap index, Premier Oil was the worst performer, down 9.2% at 72.25 pence after The Times reported on Sunday that the oil and gas company is considering raising funds to buy a package of oil and gas fields in the North Sea from US major Chevron Corp for around USD1.5 billion.The newspaper said the explorer intends to fund the deal through a rights issue or a share placing. The company also is considering selling all or part of its Latin American business to help pay for the deal.The Times noted that Premier's shares have slumped from 500 pence in 2011 to less than 80p last week, valuing the company at below GBP650 million and making an equity fundraising a "tough sell".In a statement after the London market open, Premier said it has made no firm decision to bid for the Chevron assets. It said its current operating performance remains strong.The pound was lower, quoted at USD1.2823 Monday against USD1.2835 at the London equities close Friday with the key vote in the House of Commons looming.Parliament is more likely to block the UK's exit from the EU than allow it to crash out without a deal, Theresa May is set to warn as she launches a last-ditch plea to MPs to back her Brexit deal.The prime minister will use a speech on the eve of the critical Commons vote on her exit plan to urge MPs to consider the "consequences" of their actions on the faith of British people in democracy.In the afternoon, May is expected to reiterate her warning that "catastrophic harm" will be inflicted to trust in politicians if they fail to implement the result of the referendum.With less than 36 hours to go until the long-awaited vote, May will say, based on last week's Westminster drama, that she now believes MPs blocking Brexit is a more likely outcome than leaving without a deal."The vote, which was originally due to take place before Christmas, was pulled at the last minute by PM May to avoid her registering a heavy defeat. However, with the deal unchanged from before, media reports suggest that at present, defeat for the government could still be in the order of two hundred votes," noted analysts at Lloyds. In the US earnings calendar on Monday, lender Citigroup will report fourth-quarter earnings before the market open in New York.