LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: WPP, William Hill Post Interim Revenue Growth

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set for a soft start on Friday, despite Wall Street's overnight rally, as investors are cautious ahead of the UK second-quarter GDP data release.In the UK, a flurry of data is released at 0930 BST. In addition to GDP, manufacturing and industrial production figures will be published alongside the UK trade balance.Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said a slowdown in growth in the UK would be no surprise to investors, nor to the Bank of England, which revised its 2019-20 growth forecasts significantly lower at its latest meeting due to increased no-deal Brexit risks."But a big miss in Britain's GDP data could trigger fresh headwinds in the pound and bring the possibility of a decline toward the 1.20 level against the US dollar back in perspective," said Ozkardeskaya.The pound was quoted at USD1.2140 early on Friday, broadly flat compared to USD1.2145 late Thursday.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 22.1 points lower at 7,263.8 on Friday. The blue-chip index closed up 87.20 points, or 1.2%, at 7,285.90 on Thursday.In early UK company news, advertising firm WPP said its second-quarter results were slightly ahead of its internal expectations, with revenue rising by 2.3% to GBP4.03 billion.The company noted that an improvement in North America and the UK was partly offset by slower growth in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa & the Middle East and Central & Eastern Europe.For the six months to the end of June, WPP's revenue grew by 1.6% to GBP7.62 billion. Revenue on a constant currency basis was flat compared with last year, the difference to the reported number reflecting the weakening of the pound in the first half, primarily against the dollar and euro.Reported billings were down 0.5% at GBP26.53 billion, down 2.0% in constant currency. Estimated net new business billings of USD2.93 billion were won in the first half of the year, WPP said. Pretax profit dropped 44%, however, to GBP478.2 million, as general & administrative costs surged 28% to GBP552.8 million. "We are still in the early stages of our three-year turnaround plan, and we remain focused on returning the company to sustainable growth over that period. Our guidance for the full year is unchanged," said Chief Executive Mark Read.Building materials company CRH said it has completed the latest phase of its share buyback programme, returning a further EUR350 million of cash to shareholders. This brings total cash returned to shareholders of the Irish company under its ongoing share buyback programme to EUR1.35 billion since its commencement in May last year. CRH said it is considering further share buybacks, the details of which it will announce as part of its interim results release on August 22. Turning to London mid-caps, bookmaker William Hill posted a narrowed loss for the 26 weeks to July 2 of GBP63.5 million compared to GBP819.6 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 1.1% to GBP811.7 million from GBP802.9 million. A year ago, William Hill recorded an impairment charge of GBP882.8 million in the Retail segment following the announcement of the UK government's decision to reduce the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals. William Hill said that in the first half there was a decline in Retail revenue of 12% after the implementation of GBP2 maximum stake on the gaming machines from April. In Online, William Hill reported growth of 14% during the period, primarily resulting from the acquisition of Mr Green in Sweden. There was also growth of 40% in William Hill US, driven by expansion in the country after the US Federal ban on sports betting was overturned by Supreme Court in May 2018."We are making good progress against the five-year strategy we outlined last year, delivering strong revenue growth in the US and other international markets and positioning William Hill well for future growth," said Chief Executive Philip Bowcock. Regus office owner IWG said it has entered into a second strategic partnership with TKP Corp. IWG will divest its Taiwanese operations to TKP, and the parties have agreed an exclusive master franchise agreement for the country.Service office provider said the deal follows the deal between IWG and TKP in April for the divestment of IWG's Japanese operations to TKP and related franchise agreement in respect of the Japan market.IWG will receive gross consideration of GBP22.7 million payable in cash at completion, which is expected to occur in September. Proceeds from the divestment will be used for IWG's general corporate purposes, it said.Hikma Pharmaceuticals said its pretax profit almost doubled in the first half of 2019 to USD226 million from USD141 million a year ago, as revenue rose to USD1.05 billion from USD979 million. "Our good half-year financial results demonstrate the breadth and resilience of our marketed portfolio, successful pipeline launches and actions we've taken to reduce costs and increase efficiencies," explained Chief Executive Siggi Olafsson.As a result, Hikma raised its annual guidance and said it now expects its Injectables revenue to be in the range of USD870 million to USD900 million and core operating margin to be in the range of 36% to 38%. Given the strong performance of the Generics business in the first half, Hikma said it now expects Generics revenue for the full year to be in the range of USD690 million to USD720 million.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended up the most in the past two months, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 1.4%, the S&P 500 up 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.2%."The rally in the S&P 500 last night was enough to turn the index positive on the week, and that highlights how much sentiment has changed in the past couple of days. The sharp turnaround in US stocks coincided with a rebound in US government bond yields. It would appear that the latest battle in the trade war has come to an end," said CMC Markets UK's Madden.In Asia on Friday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.7% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2%.Chinese factory price inflation fell below zero for the first time in three years, official data showed, the latest sign of weakening demand amid mounting trade tensions with the US.The producer price index - an important barometer of the industrial sector that measures the cost of goods at the factory gate - dropped 0.3% year-on-year in July, down from zero percent in June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.A slowdown in factory gate inflation reflects sluggish demand, while a turn to deflation could dent corporate profits and drag on the world's number two economy, which in turn could lead to a drop in prices globally.The reading marks the first deflation since August 2016, and fell short of the minus 0.1% forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.In Europe, trade balance data are due from Germany at 0800 BST with French industrial output figures following at 0845 BST.