(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
SIG warned on annual profit amid deteriorating trading conditions and said it has sold Air Handling and Building Solutions units for around GBP236 million in total as part of a programme of selling non-core businesses. The building materials company said the weakening of trading has accelerated over recent weeks and political and economic uncertainty has continued to increase. As a result, SIG said it is now anticipating significantly lower underlying profitability than previous expectations for 2019 in both the specialist distribution and roofing merchanting businesses. In 2018, SIG reported group underlying pretax profit of GBP72.7 million and revenue of GBP2.68 billion.
----------
Tesco confirmed a report that it has appointed John Kingman as non-executive director for its banking arm, Tesco Personal Finance, with effect on November 1. The supermarket chain did not confirm, however, if Kingman would be appointed as chair of Tesco Bank or as a non-executive director of the Tesco group. On Saturday, Sky News reported Kingman had been lined up to become chair of Tesco Bank, replacing Graham Pimlott after seven years in the role. Kingman has been chair at insurance and pensions firm Legal & General for three years since 2016. Prior to that, he was part of the UK Treasury for four years from 2012 to 2016, leaving as acting permanent secretary.
----------
HSBC Holdings is planning to lay off up to 10,000 staff, a report said, just weeks after its chief executive stepped down and announced the axing 4,000 posts citing a weak global outlook. The latest cuts mostly in high-paid roles are part of a fresh cost-cutting drive by new boss Noel Quinn as the banking titan struggles to adjust to falling interest rates, Brexit and the long-running trade war, the Financial Times reported. The London-headquartered bank last month announced the shock exit of CEO John Flint after just 18 months in the hot seat but gave no reason for the decision.
----------
MARKETS
----------
London shares were lower as investors were cautious ahead of the resumption of high level trade talks between the US and China in Washington later this week. In the FTSE 250, SIG was the worst performer, down 14%. Wall Street was pointed to a lower open.
----------
FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 7,150.66
FTSE 250: down 0.5% at 19,385.45
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.2% at 861.60
GBP: flat at USD1.2300 (USD1.2302)
EUR: flat at USD1.0970 (USD1.0973)
GOLD: down at USD1,502.30 per ounce (USD1,504.05)
OIL (Brent): flat at USD58.48 a barrel (USD58.40)
(changes since previous London equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
House prices in the UK grew at their slowest rate in six and a half years in September, according to data from Halifax. House prices for September were 1.1% higher than the same month a year before, with August having recorded 1.8% annual growth. On a monthly basis, house prices in September fell 0.4%, after a 0.3% month-on-month rise in August. House prices averaged GBP232,574 in September, with August having been at GBP233,541. "Annual house price growth slowed somewhat in September, rising by just 1.1% over the last year. Whilst this is the lowest level of growth since April 2013, it remains in keeping with the predominantly flat trend we've seen in recent months," said Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax. "Looking ahead, we expect activity levels and price growth to remain subdued while the current period of economic uncertainty persists," Galley added.
----------
Boris Johnson will attempt to save his Brexit plan this week after his French counterpart warned that the EU would decide within days whether an agreement would be possible. The UK prime minister told Emmanuel Macron that Brussels should not be lured into the "mistaken belief" that Britain could extend its membership of the bloc beyond October 31. But in a telephone call on Sunday, the French president reportedly informed Johnson that the EU will decide at the end of the week whether a deal is possible. An Elysee official told the BBC: "The president told [Johnson] that the negotiations should continue swiftly with Michel Barnier's team in coming days, in order to evaluate at the end of the week whether a deal is possible that respects EU principles."
----------
A second whistleblower has come forward in the impeachment case against US President Donald Trump, according to a lawyer representing the original whistleblower. Mark Zaid – who filed a formal complaint with the inspector general last month, triggering the impeachment inquiry – told The Associated Press that the second whistleblower, who also works in intelligence, had not filed a complaint with the inspector general but had "firsthand knowledge that supported" the original whistleblower. The original whistleblower complained that Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country" in the 2020 US election. Trump and his supporters have rejected the accusations that he did anything improper.
----------
North Korea and the US walked away on Saturday with opposing assessments of nuclear talks in Sweden, which Pyongyang said broke down but Washington called "good discussions". The US accepted host Sweden's invitation to resume talks in two weeks' time, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said. The discussions followed months of stalemate after a February meeting between the North's leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump, and came after Pyongyang's defiant test of a sea-launched ballistic missile on Wednesday. "The negotiations have not fulfilled our expectations and finally broke up...without any outcome. (It) is totally due to the fact that the US would not give up their old...attitude," the nuclear-armed North's leading negotiator Kim Myong Gil told reporters in Stockholm.
----------
Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters marched across more than half a dozen Hong Kong districts on Sunday despite heavy rain and shuttered subway stations. The marches on Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula were largely peaceful as riot police on pedestrian walkways watched from above. Skirmishes appeared likely, however, as police flew a black tear gas warning flag at protesters gathering outside a police station in the popular shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui. Police also sent a warning text message to residents appealing to them to stay inside as "unauthorized public events expected today will likely cause violence and disruption". Many protesters wore face masks in defiance of leader Carrie Lam, who enacted emergency legislation on Friday to ban their use at unsanctioned rallies and marches.
----------
Copyright 2019 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.