(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set for a broadly flat open on Friday, despite positive noises from US President Donald Trump regarding further talks with China.
IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 2.1 points lower at 7,182.22. The blue chip index closed 1.0% higher at 7,184.32 on Thursday.
Trump had said US and Chinese trade officials were due to hold discussions on Thursday, days before Washington is set to raise tariffs on billions in Chinese goods.
"There is a talk scheduled for today at a different level," Trump told Fox News Radio on Thursday, without elaborating.
He rebutted prior news reports sceptical of his claims that Beijing and Washington held talks by telephone last week. "Yes, they have been talking," Trump said.
The US Trade Representative's office, which is leading the US negotiations with China, did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
Earlier on Thursday, China's Commerce Ministry helped cheer stock markets by signalling Beijing may not respond in kind to Trump's latest tariff increases and is still willing to negotiate.
"While it would appear we look set for a decent week of gains for equity markets in general, there's always that nagging doubt we're only a presidential tweet away from another sharp sell-off and for all of the gains of the last few days, and what appears to be a fragile truce, the fact remains tariff barriers will increase further on the September 1, increasing the costs of doing business for companies worldwide," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.
In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended impressively higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 1.3%, the S&P 500 also up 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite 1.5% higher.
The Japanese Nikkei 225 index was 1.1% higher early Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 0.4% higher.
In early corporate news in London, FTSE 250 building materials firm Grafton Group reported interim profit and revenue growth, despite a tough environment in the UK.
Revenue for the six months to June rose 2% to GBP1.44 billion, with pretax profit climbing 5% to GBP88.2 million. Adjusted pretax profit was also 5% higher, at GBP90.9 million.
Grafton has increased the interim dividend by 8% to 6.5 pence per share.
The UK business was held back by uncertainty over the UK's near-term economic prospects, but operations elsewhere did well, especially in Ireland and the Netherlands. Despite the UK issues, Dublin-based Grafton "looks to the future with confidence".
Iron ore pellet maker Ferrexpo said an independent review into payments made to a charity in the Ukraine has found "some" of the funds could have been used inappropriately.
The probe, Ferrexpo said, was unable to find an explanation for a number of discrepancies, but the company stressed there is no evidence any of its directors have been involved in the misuse of funding.
Elsewhere, AIM-listed healthcare software and systems firm Emis Group reported interim results in line with expectations, with restructuring costs leading to a dip in profit.
For the six months to June, Emis reported a pretax profit of GBP12.1 million, 4.0% lower year-on-year, though revenue rose 7% to GBP79.8 million.
Emis increased the interim return to shareholders by 10% to 15.6p a share.
Emis said its two main units, Health and Enterprise, both registered good sales and commercial performances. Overall, Emis said it is well-placed to meet medium-term revenue growth and margin improvement targets.
Clipper Logistics is paying a final dividend of 6.5p for its year ended June, meaning the year's total is 16% higher than the year before at 9.7p.
Clipper's pretax profit slipped 6.1% to GBP16.9 million, due to higher costs, but there was strong revenue growth of 15% to GBP460.2 million.
The logistics firm achieved "significant" organic growth in the both the UK and Europe, it said. Clipper warned, however, that UK economic uncertainty "may well" have some impact in its new financial year, but the outlook is positive nonetheless.
Premier Foods has appointed a new chief executive and a new chair, while the company's head of finance is to depart.
Alex Whitehouse, currently UK managing director, has become CEO, while Meggitt and Euromoney Institutional Investor director Colin Day has become non-executive chair, both with immediate effect.
Chief Financial Officer Alastair Murray, who has also been serving as acting CEO over the past seven months, is to step down from both roles. Director of Financial Control Duncan Leggett will become interim CFO until a permanent replacement is hired.
In political news, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will intensify negotiations with Brussels amid three legal challenges to his decision to suspend Parliament.
Johnson called for both the UK and EU to "step up the tempo" as further protests were planned over his move to suspend Parliament for more than a month in the run-up to Brexit.
Downing Street said the UK's team of Brexit negotiators will sit down with their EU counterparts twice a week during September "with the possibility of additional technical meetings, to discuss a way forward on securing a new deal".
The push comes as judges in Scotland and Northern Ireland prepare to hear from lawyers representing anti-no-deal campaigners and the UK government on Friday, with a decision expected in Edinburgh.
It comes after the Queen approved Johnson's request for Parliament to be suspended for five weeks from September 10.
The pound was quoted at USD1.2179 early Friday, down from USD1.2196 late Thursday and USD1.2290 earlier in the week.
UK house prices were little changed in August, figures from Nationwide showed on Friday.
On an annual basis, house prices were up 0.6% in August. Month-on-month, prices were flat on a seasonally adjusted basis. This compares to rises of 0.3% on both an annual and monthly basis in July.
The average price of a house in the UK, non-seasonally adjusted, stood at GBP216,096 in August, versus GBP217,663 in July.
"Annual house price growth remained below 1% for the ninth month in a row in August, at 0.6%. While house price growth has remained fairly stable, there have been mixed signals from the property market in recent months," said Nationwide chief economist Robert Gardner.
"Housing market trends will remain heavily dependent on developments in the broader economy. In the near term, healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs will provide underlying support, though uncertainty is likely to continue to exert a drag on sentiment and activity."
Consumer confidence has fallen in the UK amid a sudden drop in expectations for personal finances and the general economy over the next 12 months, a survey suggested Friday.
Overall confidence fell three points to minus 14 in August "in the face of pre-Brexit nerves", according to GfK's long-running Consumer Confidence Index.
All five measures for the index saw decreases, including a six point drop in expectations for the general economic situation over the next 12 months to minus 38 – 12 points lower than this time last year.
Friday's economic calendar has eurozone inflation and unemployment at 1000 BST. In the US, personal spending numbers are at 1330 BST.
Premier Foods (PFD)
Ferrexpo (FXPO)