Bodycote Share News (BOY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are set for a lower open after disappointing Chinese economic data, while in early corporate news RPC has agreed a new takeover deal. China's exports plummeted 21% in February due to the Lunar New Year holiday and pressure from the trade war with the US, official data showed Friday.Exports reached USD135.2 billion following the larger-than-expected annual drop. Chinese imports fell 5.2% year-on-year in February to USD131.1 billion. Total foreign trade decreased 14% compared with last February, reaching USD266.4 billion. Foreign trade was impacted by China's week-long Lunar New Year holiday in early February. Nevertheless, the Chinese economy has also been suffering from a months-long trade war with the US that saw Washington slap tariffs on USD250 billion worth of Chinese imports.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday in a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session some people want to "decouple" the US and Chinese economies, labelling the efforts as "wishful thinking"."China celebrated the Lunar New Year last month so the numbers might not be an accurate reflection of trade," cautioned CMC Markets UK's David Madden. "Equities in Shanghai and Hong Kong are much lower on the back of the trade data." The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 2.0%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended 4.4% lower in late trade, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.9%.IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 33 points lower at 7,124.55. The blue chip index finished Thursday down 38.45 points, or 0.5%, at 7,157.55.In early UK corporate news, FTSE 100 GlaxoSmithKline's ViiV Healthcare reported positive data for a proposed HIV-1 treatment.Cabotegravir and rilpivirine both met their main endpoints, GSK said, showing a combination of the two injected every four weeks was "non-inferior" to current standard daily oral treatments. In the FTSE 250, RPC has decided to withdraw its recommendation that shareholders accept Apollo Management's offer for the firm, and accept Berry Global's offer instead.Plastics firm RPC has agreed a 793 pence per share deal with US-based Berry Global, having previously agreed a 782p deal with Apollo. RPC shares closed at 796.41p on Thursday. The deals would value RPC at approximately GBP3.22 billion and GBP3.18 billion respectively. This comes as Apollo also announced Friday it has received approvals for its RPC offer from competition regulators in South Africa. Specialist building products firm SIG reported a drop in annual revenue, though it also swung to a pretax profit.SIG's statutory revenue fell to GBP2.74 billion in 2018, from GBP2.88 billion in 2017, but it returned to pretax profit, posting GBP28.5 million from a GBP54.7 million loss a year prior.On an underlying basis, revenue fell 1.2% to GBP2.68 billion, with like-for-like sales down 2.1%. SIG's underlying pretax profit was up 8.5% to GBP75.3 million. SIG is paying a 2.5p final dividend, meaning the total for 2018 is unchanged from the year before at 3.75p. The company said its transformation strategy is now beginning to take shape, with the second half of 2018 seeing "significant" progress.Net debt has fallen 27% to GBP189.4 million, SIG continued, and the firm plans on reducing this further.However, trading conditions do remain challenging, and SIG has guided for further like-for-like sales decline in the first part of 2019. Bodycote reported solid revenue and profit growth for 2018, with all of its divisions managing to report revenue improvement.The thermal processing firm's statutory pretax profit climbed to GBP132.2 million from GBP117.0 million, with the headline figure up 12% to GBP136.4 million. Bodycote's revenue rose 5.6%, and 6.7% at constant currency rates, to GBP728.6 million.The company will pay a final dividend of 13.2p, taking the 2018 total to 19.0p from 17.4p a year before. On top of that, it also will pay a special dividend of 20p, having returned a special payout of 25p in 2017. Bodycote had a strong year, the company said, and it enters 2019 "well positioned". Computacenter has appointed Non-Executive Director Peter Ryan as non-executive chair, replacing current incumbent Greg Lock, who will depart on May 16 at its annual general meeting. Outsourcer Serco has won a USD200 million contract to provide field office support services to the US Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The deal is for one year, but has four option years. Non-Standard Finance, which is currently attempting to take over larger peer Provident Financial, reported a much narrowed annual loss, with underlying results beating market consensus, the firm said. The unsecured lender's pretax loss for 2018 was GBP1.6 million, from GBP13.0 million a year prior, while its normalised pretax profit rose 12% to GBP14.8 million.Revenue climbed 47% to GBP158.8 million, with normalised revenue rising 39% to GBP166.5 million. The normalised figure is adjusted for the August 2017 acquisition of George Banco and the adoption of a new accounting standard for 2018. Non-Standard Finance is paying a 2.00p final dividend, meaning 2018's total is 2.60p vs 2.20p a year prior. Its total net loan book rose 29% year-on-year to GBP310.3 million, with growth on brand-based lending, guarantor loans, and home credit.Non-Standard Finance had a good year, it said, while it has started 2019 well. Back in Asia, Japan's economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.9% in the last quarter of 2018, revised up from an initial estimate of 1.4%, a government report showed on Friday.The reading was almost in line with the 1.8% growth forecast by analysts surveyed by the Kyodo News agency and represented the first expansion in two quarters, the Cabinet Office said.The pound was quoted at USD1.3085 early Friday, lower from USD1.3096 late Thursday, amid dollar strength. Wall Street on Thursday ended lower with the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 0.8%, the S&P 500 losing 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite slipping 1.1%.In US political news, despite the failed summit last week between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the US government believes it is still possible to conclude an agreement to denuclearize the country by the end of Trump's first term in 2020.A senior US State Department official said Thursday is the time frame officials are working from."We are not as far along as we wanted to be, but we are making progress," the official said at a briefing.Trump's second meeting with Kim ended without a final declaration. The two sides were divided on the central issue of how North Korea should get rid of its nuclear weapons and what it should get in return.The economic events calendar on Friday has Italy producer prices at 1000 GMT, and the US jobs report for February at 1330 GMT.