LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: IWG cuts 2021 outlook on continued Covid drag

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set for a muted start to the week after Chinese trade data, while strong, undershot expectations.

In early UK company news, office workspace provider IWG cut its full-year earnings outlook on prolonged coronavirus disruption, while Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital lifted its guidance on the back of accelerating trade.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of London large-caps to open 7.76 points higher, or 0.1%, at 7,076.80 on Monday. The FTSE 100 closed up 4.69 points, or 0.1%, at 7,069.04 on Friday.

The subdued call comes despite a rally on Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.5%, the S&P 500 up 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.5%.

"Despite Friday's strong finish in the US, European markets look set to open the week slightly on the back foot after the latest China trade data for May showed that exports slowed more than expected," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

China's exports rose 28% in May while imports grew at the fastest pace in more than a decade as the global economy powers back from the pandemic crisis, official data showed overnight. While growth was strong, it failed to live up to expectations of a 32% gain.

Demand for China's goods has bounced after economically painful lockdowns last year due to the Covid-19 crisis, and as vaccines are rolled out across much of the world. The figures are also boosted by last year's low base of comparison when the coronavirus was spreading rapidly.

In May, import growth hit its highest rate since January 2011, coming in at 51% on-year, also slightly below expectations of a Bloomberg poll of analysts.

In China, the Shanghai Composite was down 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.5%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. The yen was trading lower, with the dollar quoted at JPY109.51 early Monday, up versus JPY109.44 late Friday in London.

The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended down 0.2%.

CMC's Hewson added: "US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that higher interest rates might not be such a bad thing in comments made at the weekend, helping to push US bond yields higher, and take some of the steam out of last weeks end of week rebound in stock markets."

Over the weekend Yellen also hailed an "unprecedented commitment" by the G7 wealthy nations to achieve a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15%.

"That global minimum tax would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation," she said in a statement after the other G7 nations backed US President Joe Biden's plan to get tech giants in particular to pay more.

Following the two-day gathering in London, the G7 said in a final communique that it will "commit to a global minimum tax of at least 15% on a country by country basis". The G7 – comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – said it hoped to reach a final tax agreement at the July gathering of the expanded G20 finance ministers group.

Facebook even got behind the move despite the social media giant facing the prospect of having to pay more tax – while non-governmental organizations said it did not go far enough.

In early UK company news, IWG guided to full-year earnings "well below" 2020 due to a slower-than-expected recovery.

The office workspace provider said it has continued to see strong recovery in some of its markets since updating on first quarter activity, but the overall improvement across the group has been less than expected due to "prolonged" Covid-19 fallout, including lockdown restrictions and the emergence of new variants.

As such, this will delay IWG's anticipated recovery and, in turn, is expected to have a "significant impact" on its 2021 results, with underlying group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation now seen "well below" 2020's level. However, the company said its expectation for a strong recovery in 2022 is unchanged.

IWG said: "In markets where Covid-19 related restrictions are easing such as the US, we have seen positive momentum. Occupancy is improving, enquiries have reached pre-Covid-19 levels, we have an increasing pipeline of corporate customers on network-wide deals and service revenues are starting to improve. These positive trends support the board's view that the prolonged impact of Covid-19 on the group's 2021 results is one of timing."

Grocer Tesco said that it and France's Carrefour have decided not to extend their purchasing alliance beyond the three years agreed back in 2018.

"Over the last three years, Tesco and Carrefour have benefited from a number of joint buying opportunities across food and general merchandise categories, enabling access to new suppliers, new sources and new products. Moving forward, both companies have agreed that they will continue this work independently and focus on their own opportunities, building on the experience and the progress made during the alliance period," said Tesco.

The alliance will run until the end of 2021 and then end.

AstraZeneca said results from the head-to-head Elevate-RR phase three trial of Calquence showed non-inferior progression-free survival and statistically significantly fewer events of atrial fibrillation versus ibrutinib in adults with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Patients treated with Calquence had a statistically significantly lower incidence of all-grade atrial fibrillation compared with patients treated with ibrutinib, a key secondary endpoint, the pharmaceutical firm highlighted.

Separately, updated results at four years of follow-up from the Elevate-TN phase three trial continued to show a strong progression-free survival benefit for Calquence as combination therapy or as monotherapy in previously untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, the most common type of leukemia in adults.

Germany-focused business park operator Sirius Real Estate reported a jump in full-year profit as it performed well during the pandemic.

Pretax profit surged 48% year-on-year to EUR163.7 million, including EUR103.9 million of gains from property revaluations. Annualised rent roll rose 7.6% to EUR97.2 million, with the company noting the like-for-like increase of 5.2% marked the seventh consecutive year of growth exceeding the 5.0% mark.

Sirius Real Estate's total dividend for the year was 3.80 cents, up 6.4% on the year before.

"The comprehensive governmental response to the pandemic in Germany appears to have succeeded in maintaining employment and limiting the economic damage that many had predicted. Whilst there still remains some uncertainty as the roll out of vaccination programmes in Germany and across Europe continues, the company's performance over the last year gives reason for cautious optimism going forward," said Sirius Real Estate.

Ad agency S4 Capital boosted its guidance after a strong start to 2021.

The firm's executive chair, Martin Sorrell, said ahead of Monday's annual general meeting that trading in the first four months of the year has "accelerated strongly", with revenue up almost 90% versus a rise of 71% for the first quarter. Net revenue was up almost 84% compared with 71% for the first quarter.

"We do not have our May figures as yet, but early indications are that May will be similar to April and that in June, the pipeline continues to be robust," the digital advertising and marketing services company said.

In light of the pick-up in trade during the second quarter so far, S4 has raised its guidance for net revenue growth to 35% from 30% seen previously.

"We are confident that we will be able to deliver sector leading, high double-digit like-for-like revenue and gross profit growth for 2021, along with a strong operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin," said Sorrell.

Over the weekend, Reckitt Benckiser on Saturday announced it has agreed to sell its infant nutrition business in China to Beijing-based investment firm Primavera Capital Group for USD2.2 billion.

The Slough, Berkshire-based consumer health and hygiene products company's disposal will include the manufacturing plants in Nijmegen in the Netherlands and Guangzhou, China, as well as a royalty-free perpetual and exclusive licence of the Mead Johnson and Enfa brands in China. Reckitt will continue to own the Mead Johnson and Enfa family of brands globally.

Sterling was quoted at USD1.4119 early Monday, easing from USD1.4169 at the London equities close on Friday. The euro traded at USD1.2155, down from USD1.2172 late Friday.

Gold was quoted at USD1,883.62 an ounce early Monday, lower than USD1,893.48 on Friday. Brent oil was trading at USD71.37 a barrel, flat on USD71.55 late Friday.

In Monday's economic calendar there are UK Halifax house prices at 0830 BST. At 0930 BST is eurozone investor confidence.

By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

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