Inmarsat Share News (ISAT)

(Correcting opening paragraph to say US trade war with China has commenced.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London closed broadly higher on Friday, but ended the week broadly lower as the US followed through on trade threats as its trade war with China officially began. The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.2%, or 14.48 points at 7,617.70, but ended the week down 0.3%. The FTSE 250 ended flat, or down 2.75 points, at 20,618.34, ending the week down 1.0%, and the AIM All-Share closed up 0.3%, or 3.66 points, at 1,086.98, ending the week up 0.4%.The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.1% at 12,898.20, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.1% at 18,821.36, and the Cboe UK Small Companies closed up 0.2% at 12,595.58."While equities may not have surged in the many hoped for earlier in the week, they have at least found support for now, and even the threat of more tariffs has not been enough to drive stocks down," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.China slapped retaliatory tariffs on US goods after Washington imposed duties on Chinese imports, the first shots fired in a trade war between the two giants that could disrupt the global economy.The US tariffs, which took effect right after midnight Friday on the East Coast, constitute "bullying" and the beginning of the "biggest trade war in history," the Chinese Commerce Ministry said.Beijing then placed 25% tariffs on USD34 billion worth of US goods - the same value as the Chinese imports affected by Washington's tariffs.US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened he would escalate the conflict, to the tune of USD500 billion if Beijing retaliated. This exceeds the totality of Chinese exports to the US last year, which clocked in at USD505 billion dollars.On the London Stock Exchange, ITV ended the session as the best blue chip performer up 4.3% after the broadcaster was double upgraded to Buy from Sell by Societe Generale. At the other end of the large cap index, Associated British Foods ended the session as the worst performer down 4.3% - having endured a torrid two days of trading. The stock has declined 9.0% since Monday. On Thursday, the sugar producer and Primark clothing chain owner warned it sees lower profit from its Sugar division offsetting an improved outturn from Primark. The stock has fallen 8.5% over the last two days. As such, a slew of brokers cut their price targets on AB Foods shares on Friday. Direct Line Insurance Group closed down 4.1% after Barclays cut the insurer to Equal Weight from Overweight. "As the most liquid stock in a motor sector dominated by a negative top-down view at present, Direct Line may find itself in an unfavourable position - despite defensive characteristics and attractive yield, investors either don't have to own any of the motor insurers, or use Direct Line as an instrument to short the theme," said analysts at Barclays. Rightmove closed down 2.5% after UBS cut the property listings company to Sell from Neutral following a strong rise the property listings company's share price in the wake of Silver Lake's bid for peer ZPG.In the FTSE 250, Inmarsat ended as the worst performer down 8.0% after US satellite communications company EchoStar Corp said it does not intend to make a further offer for its UK peer Inmarsat PLC.At the beginning of June, Inmarsat confirmed it rejected a second takeover proposal from EchoStar which it believed "significantly" undervalued the firm. The offer would have amounted to a total value of 532p per share. Inmarsat shares closed at 526p on Thursday, giving it an approximate market capitalisation of GBP2.43 billion.The pound was quoted higher at USD1.3261 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.3214 at the close on Thursday.In Paris the CAC 40 ended up 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.3%. The European Union is poised to introduce protective steel tariffs that would take effect if imports to the bloc surge, in order to protect European producers against the secondary effects of US steel tariffs, the EU's executive announced on Friday.The measure, which is likely to come in mid-July, will set EU import quotas for a range of steel products. Once these quotas are reached, higher tariffs will be imposed on further steel imports, regardless of their origin. The move had been promised as part of the EU's response to the US tariff hike. The euro was firm against the dollar at USD1.1739 at the European equities close, against USD1.1700 late Thursday.In economic news from the continent, Germany's industrial production recovered at a faster than expected pace in May, data from Destatis revealed.Industrial output grew 2.6% month-on-month in May, reversing a revised 1.3% drop in April. Output was forecast to grow marginally by 0.3%.Stocks in New York were higher at the London equities close after the release of mixed US jobs data, which showed that the economy created more jobs than forecast in June, but the jobless edged up.The DJIA was up 0.6%, the S&P 500 index up 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite up 1.2%.Data from the Labor Department showed that nonfarm payroll employment jumped by 213,000 jobs in June after surging up by an upwardly revised 244,000 jobs in May. Economists had expected employment to climb by 195,000 jobs compared to the addition of 223,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.Despite the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate rose to 4.0% in June from 3.8% in May. The unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged.In addition, wage growth held steady at 2.7% in June from a year ago, but was shy of the 2.8% reading expected by economists. Month-on-month, wages rose 0.2%, from 0.3% in May against a forecast of 0.3%. "The mixed-bag US jobs report is unlikely to be a game changer as far as interest rate expectations are concerned. After all, the headline figure of 213,000 means jobs growth expanded at a solid pace and while wages rose by less-than-expected month-over-month, they grew nonetheless." said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada."The Federal Reserve will probably look through the unexpected increase in the unemployment rate, which rose partly because the participation rate increased. So, it was a 'good' rise in unemployment rate," Razaqzada added. Brent oil was down quoted at USD76.95 a barrel at the London equities close from USD78.32 at the close Thursday. "We could see disruption to the oil market now we have edged closer to a trade war. The energy market is seen as a barometer for the global economy, and should growth slip due to the tariffs, we might see a decline in demand for oil," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden. Gold was marginally lower quoted at USD1,255.42 an ounce at the London equities close against USD1,257.09 late Thursday.The economic events calendar on Monday has trade data from Germany at 0700 BST and the eurozone Sentix investor confidence reading at 0930 BST. The UK corporate calendar on Monday has half-year production results from gold miner Centamin.