KGF.L - Kingfisher plc

UPDATE 2-FTSE cheers easing in U.S.-Iran worries; mid-caps miss out

London's main share index advanced on Thursday as chances of a full-blown crisis in the Middle East waned, but mid-caps lagged as SIG and Marks and Spencer fell after warning of lower annual results. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3% on its best day in a week after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped back from more military action against Iran and Tehran signalled an end to retaliation. "It looks like the shooting war is over for now, but there is always the potential for escalation at any point," Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson said.

LIVE MARKETS-Buy European cyclicals if you believe in...

* FTSE 100 slides 1.1% Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Danilo Masoni. Anyhow, as the season for 2020 outlooks gets in full swing, the theme of fiscal stimulus becoming next year's game changer is clearly gaining momentum in the overall narrative. "If fiscal policymakers get in the game and our positive outlook for increased fiscal easing plays out, we would anticipate a resurgence for cyclicals", NN Investment Partners analysts wrote in their outlook.

LIVE MARKETS- The "embarrassingly low" Dave-to-women ratio

* STOXX 600 down 0.6% at two-week low Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Danilo Masoni. "Everyone knows a bloke called Dave," was how British television channel UKTV justified its decision to name its newly launched channel with that moniker in 2007. New research by Morningstar has found there are more men called Dave running UK-listed investment funds than the total number of female fund managers.

LIVE MARKETS-Some pent-up demand to be unleashed?

UPDATE 2-Trade worries push European shares to worst day in three weeks

European shares logged their worst day in three weeks on Wednesday on mounting worries that rising U.S.-China tensions could take a toll on trade negotiations between the two countries. "This deal is so not even there...there's a good reason it could fall through altogether," said Tom Martin, portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta. Expectations that the world's top two economies would strike a trade deal have been instrumental in driving the STOXX 600 to a four-year peak.

MORNING BID EUROPE-Nagging doubts

A drop in oil prices, poor U.S. retail earnings, declining Japanese exports and an equivocal reaction to the UK election’s first live TV debate all added to a note of caution on Wednesday. The ebb and flow of optimism about a trade agreement between Washington and Beijing has become a fact of life, but sentiment surrounding the negotiations still packs a punch – not least with markets "priced for perfection" the way they have been and the assumption that a global recession will be avoided next year only with a significant truce. The latest obstacle to a deal is the U.S. Senate’s approval on Tuesday of a bill supporting human rights in Hong Kong amid a crackdown on a pro-democracy protest movement there – a decision that drew angry condemnation from Beijing.

LIVE MARKETS- On our radar: futures slip, Wirecard troubles, Kingfisher results

UPDATE 2-Kingfisher's deteriorating sales highlight new boss's tough task

The new boss of Kingfisher criticised the British home improvement group's "organisational complexity" as it reported a worsening decline in quarterly sales, underlining the uphill task he faces to stem falling profits. Kingfisher shares slumped as much as 9.3% after its trading update and as Carrefour veteran Thierry Garnier, who succeeded Véronique Laury as chief executive in September, outlined major problems that need to be addressed. The group, whose main businesses are B&Q and Screwfix in Britain and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, said like-for-like sales fell 3.7% in its third quarter to Oct. 31.

Sales fall at Britain's Kingfisher as new boss starts