LONDON: UK stocks opened weaker this morning amid continued jitters over North Korea’s aggressive posturing on nuclear weapons. At 0919, the benchmark FTSE100 was down 12.92 points, or 0.2% at 7,288.37. Card Factory shares slumped after the company booked a 13.9% fall in first-half operating profit and warned of a challenging second half. AA maintained its interim dividend after reporting first results in line with forecasts, but its shares still fell 9.7%. Trading revenue rose 1% to £471m, which the company said reflected growth in both insurance broking and underwriting.
Thomas Cook left its full year underlying EBIT outlook unchanged after the summer trading period closed out as expected. Winter booked revenue rose 6%, underpinned by growing demand from travelers for Turkey and North Africa. Time Out Group booked an interim operating loss of £15.6m, which it pinned on investment in its digital offering. Sales rose 13% to £18.7m. Phoenix Spree Deutschland was one of the morning’s big gainers, with its shares up 3.5%, after it announced it had quadrupled its interim pre-tax profit. Miners were also performing strongly, led by Kaz Minerals and Vedanta Resources, which both posted gains of more than 5%.
