LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: RBS Pays Special Dividend; BT Revenue Slips

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open lower Friday after US President Donald Trump surprised markets by imposing a new set of tariffs on Chinese goods.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 84.77 points lower at 7,500.1 on Friday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 1.91 points at 7,584.87 on Thursday.In early UK company news, lender RBS saw profit rise in the first half and declared a 12 pence special dividend, British Airways-owner IAG reported a rise in passenger revenue despite fuel-cost headwinds, as BT saw revenue decline in the first quarter and Ferrexpo doubled its interim dividend. "Anyone trying to determine the next move in stock markets in the last 24 hours would be justified in feeling like they've just experienced a bit of whiplash," said CMC Market's David Madden."A sharp move lower in the wake of a less dovish than expected move by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday was quickly reversed in early US trading after some weak manufacturing and construction data raised the prospect that for all the coolness about pre-committing to a pre-set rate path, the Federal Reserve would soon be compelled to soften its tone, sending the S&P500 well back over the 3,000 level."This rebound was then hurt by the announcement that the US will hike tariffs on some USD300 billion worth of Chinese goods to 10% starting on September 1. The measures will come on top of the 25% tariffs that have been imposed on USD250 billion worth of Chinese products coming into the US."It is not hard to underestimate how much this abrupt escalation has caught markets unawares. After the deadlock over the summer, there was optimism that once China and the US sat down there would at least be a short period of a ceasefire while both sides restated their respective positions," added Madden,In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended well in the red on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 1.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.9% and Nasdaq Composite sliding 0.8%.In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 1.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is 2.2% lower.China's top diplomat said Friday that the freshly announced US tariffs on Chinese goods are not "constructive" in resolving the US-China trade war."Increasing tariffs is definitely not a constructive measure to solve economic and trade friction," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit in Bangkok.In London, Royal Bank of Scotland reported a sharp rise in profit in the first half and declared a special dividend of 12 pence, on top of an ordinary dividend of 2p.RBS's operating profit before tax increased to GBP2.69 billion from GBP1.83 billion. The lender's net interest income slipped, however, declining to GBP4.00 billion from GBP4.33 billion the year before.Total income was up to GBP7.12 billion from GBP6.70 billion, boosted by the Alawwal bank merger in Saudi Arabia. RBS's net interest margin slid to 1.83% versus 2.02% the year before.International Consolidated Airlines Group said passenger revenue increased 7% in the first half of 2019 to EUR10.65 billion. Pretax profit was broadly flat at EUR1.01 billion.IAG's available seat kilometres grew 5.7% to 163.4 million, with passenger revenue per available seat kilometre edging 1.3% higher to 6.52 euro cents. Non-fuel costs were 1.2% higher at 4.93 euro cents."Despite fuel cost headwinds, we delivered a good performance. At constant currency, fuel unit costs were up 6.3% while passenger unit revenue increased 1.1%, benefitting from the timing of Easter," said IAG Chief Executive Willie Walsh.Telecom firm BT said its first-quarter revenue slipped 1% on a year before to GBP5.63 billion with a fall in revenue from its Consumer, Enterprise and Global units.Chief Executive Phillip Jansen said: "BT delivered results in line with our expectations for the quarter, with adjusted EBITDA declines in Consumer and Enterprise partly offset by growth in Global. We are on track to meet our outlook for the full year."BT's pretax profit declined to GBP642 million in the three months to June 30, its financial first quarter, from GBP704 million a year before.Ferrexpo saw a sharp jump in revenue due to higher iron ore fines prices and an increase in sales volumes.Ferrexpo's first-half revenue was up 28% to USD787 million on total pellet production rising 5% to 5,353 thousand tonnes. Sales were up 4% to 4,990 thousand tonnes.The miner's pretax profit almost doubled in the half-year to USD317.8 million. As a result, the company doubled its interim dividend to 6.6 US cents.In UK political news, Boris Johnson has been dealt a significant blow after the Conservatives lost the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election to leave the new prime minister with a working majority of just one in Parliament. The Liberal Democrats won the mid-Wales constituency by a margin of 1,425, swinging the vote nearly 12% from the Tories.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2102 early Friday, down from USD1.2141 at the London equities close on Thursday.The economic calendar on Friday has UK Markit construction PMI at 0930 BST, eurozone PPI and retail sales at 1000 BST, and the key US nonfarm payrolls at 1330 BST.