London’s FTSE 100 sheds another 53 points to 6,900.2 on Friday, as European markets follow the US indices sharply lower after President Donald Trump announced $60bn worth of tariffs on Chinese imports.
On the corporate front, fashion and homewares giant Next (NXT) rallies 3.1% to £47.71 on relief results for the year to January are in line with the guidance given with its Christmas trading update, albeit profit before tax is down 8.1% to £726.1m. Encouragingly, there is no profit warning or dividend cut to spook the market as a torrid week for the retail sector concludes.
CEO Simon Wolfson describes 2017 as the ‘most challenging year we have faced for twenty five years’. Yet reassuringly, Next sets out a detailed study of its strategic responses to a changing market and maintains full year profit before tax guidance at around £705m, which would admittedly represent a 2.9% drop year-on-year.
Also on the rise is drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), bid up 3.1% to £13.13 as it follows Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) by dropping out of the bidding for Pfizer’s Consumer Healthcare business. ‘While we will continue to review opportunities that may accelerate our strategy,’ says CEO Emma Walmsley, ‘they must meet our criteria for returns and not compromise our priorities for capital allocation.’ GlaxoSmithKline also says Shingrix, its vaccine for shingles, has been approved in Europe and Japan.
Addiction specialist Indivior (INDV) slumps 33.8p to 374.5p after warning of a potential ‘rapid and material loss of market share’ for its Suboxone Film treatment in the US. This follows the US District Court for the District of Delaware's ruling that a generic drug developed by America's Alvogen does not infringe on three of Indivior's patents.
Engineer Smiths (SMIN) slumps 9.8% to £13.85 after posting a drop in first half sales and profits, hurt by weakness in its businesses serving energy and medical sectors as well as foreign exchange headwinds.
In the micro cap ranks, value butcher Crawshaw (CRAW:AIM) crashes 33.6% lower to 3.75p as it reveals CEO Noel Collett and CFO Alan Richardson are both leaving the embattled business, which reports a challenging first six weeks of the new financial year exacerbated by recent dire weather.
UK Oil & Gas Investments (UKOG:AIM) gushes 12.5% higher to 1.35p as the small cap oil and gas play says Surrey County Council has discharged planning pre-conditions for further flow testing and drilling at its Horse Hill oil discovery.
