LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: Plus500 Revenue Slumps In Quiet Market

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks are set for a higher open on Friday, as Plus500 reported a steep fall in revenue and National Express made a move into California's Silicon Valley.IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 8.5 points higher at 7,426.45. The blue chip index closed flat, or down 3.96 points at 7,417.95 on Thursday. "Wall Street closed flat as investors looked ahead cautiously to the start of earnings season. Whilst financial firms pushed higher on the expectation of decent figures, a more general fear first quarter earnings will disappoint kept stocks in check," said London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler."The outlook is not that great, and it is getting worse," Lawler added.Financial services giants JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are due to report quarterly results before the start of Wall Street trading on Friday, marking the unofficial start of the earnings season.In the US on Thursday, markets ended broadly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing down 0.1%, the S&P 500 flat, and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.2%.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended 0.7% higher Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.3%.In London, FTSE 250 trading platform firm Plus500 reported a sharp drop in first quarter revenue, with the figure coming in at USD53.9 million. This compares to USD154.8 million the prior quarter and USD297.3 million year-on-year.Plus500 blamed "subdued" financial markets for the drop, though the number of new customers did rise 10% quarter-on-quarter to 21,306. However, the figure is well short of the 72,960 new customers for the first quarter a year before. Low volatility led to a 64% quarter-on-quarter decline in average revenue per user, to USD550, with the figure also far below the year-on-year comparative of USD1,363. Looking forward, Plus500 said it is too early to predict the outcome for 2019 overall based on first quarter performance, but stressed underlying performance "remains robust". National Express has taken a 60% stake in employee shuttle firm WeDriveU for USD84.3 million, and it has options to acquire the rest of the firm in tranches over the next three years. WeDriveU is Silicon Valley's "premier" shuttle company, National Express said, carrying almost seven million passengers a year. Games Workshop said trading between the start of January and April 7 has "continued well", with revenue and profit both ahead year-on-year.Games Workshop, which makes Warhammer, has guided for pretax profit for its year ending June 2 of around GBP80 million, versus GBP74.5 million recorded in the prior year. The company has also declared a 35 pence dividend, meaning it will return 155p in total for its current financial year, compared to 126p in the prior year. Entertainment One has raised GBP130 million by placing 28.9 million new shares at a price of 450p each. Shares closed at 476.80p on Thursday in London.The placing was announced after the market close on Thursday, with Entertainment One to use the funds to by music firm Audio Network for GBP178 million. Elsewhere, Highland Gold reported a 1.7% drop in 2018 revenue to USD311.2 million, but pretax profit increased 7.9% to USD108.2 million, helped by lower expenses. Highland's production in gold and gold equivalent ounces for the year was 269,500 ounces, slightly lower than the 272,274 reported for 2017, but within guidance. Looking to 2019, Highland sees gold and gold equivalent production between 290,000 ounces and 300,000 ounces.The company said it was a solid year, and it is confident on further progress.Clothing firm Bonmarche has said a mandatory offer by Spectre Holdings, owned by Philip Day, "materially" undervalues the firm and its prospects.The mandatory offer came after Spectre bought 26.2 million shares, taking its stake to 52%, requiring an offer under UK takeover rules. Bonmarche is engaging with Day over the company's future strategy, it said, and added it is planning cost reduction actions which will start shortly. Brent oil was quoted at USD71.04 a barrel early Friday, lower than USD71.32 at the close Thursday."Oil has been a big story this week with decent swings in the price. Oil experienced strong gains at the beginning of the week owing to fears of supply outages in Libya, as the conflict in the oil producing North African country escalated," said London Capital's Lawler."These fears combined with OPEC output cuts lifted oil to year to date highs."The UK government is standing down emergency preparations for a no-deal Brexit following the latest delay to Britain's withdrawal from the EU, Sky News reported Thursday. The decision to halt no-deal operational planning by officials was taken at a meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, according to a leaked email seen by Sky News.The email, which was said to have been sent to all civil servants in an unnamed "front line Brexit department", says the suspension was taking place with "immediate effect".The pound was quoted at USD1.3063, slightly softer from USD1.3075 late Thursday.A slim economic calendar has industrial production data from the eurozone at 1000 BST and US import and export prices at 1330 BST.