26th Apr 2016 07:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares were mixed in London Tuesday, with the FTSE 100 outperforming, after positively received updates from blue-chips Whitbread, BP and St James's Place.
Coffee shop and hotel operator Whitbread was top gainer, up 3.4%, while oil major BP was up 2.3% and investment manager St James's Place up 1.6%.
Still ahead are quarterly results from emerging-markets bank Standard Chartered, due at 0915 BST.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.4% at 6,287.99
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 16,954.05
AIM ALL-SHARE: flat at 731.59
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Hang Seng: down 0.4% at 21,228.26
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.5% at 17,353.28
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 17,977.24
S&P 500: closed down 0.2% at 2,087.79
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GBP: firm at USD1.4504 (USD1.4492)
EUR: flat at USD1.1261 (USD1.1271)
GOLD: soft at USD1,233.40 per ounce (USD1,240.50)
OIL (Brent): soft at USD44.51 a barrel (USD44.79)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Tuesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)
09:00 Italy trade balance
09:30 UK BBA mortgage approvals
13:30 US durable goods orders
13:40 Bank of Canada Governor Poloz speech
13:55 US Redbook index
14:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices
14:45 US Markit services and composite PMI preliminary
15:00 US consumer confidence
15:00 US Richmond Fed manufacturing index
21:30 US API weekly crude oil stocks
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Thousands of junior doctors are staging the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS after the UK Health Secretary made it clear a new contract will go ahead. Jeremy Hunt appealed directly to medics on Monday not to withdraw emergency cover, which he said had particular risks for A&E departments, maternity and intensive care.An impasse between the government and the British Medical Association (BMA) will see junior doctors strike from 8am to 5pm Tuesday and again on Wednesday.
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The UK Labour party has accused former BHS owner Philip Green of extracting "hundreds of millions of pounds" from the high street chain and taking off "to his favourite tax haven". Shadow business minister Angela Eagle said the businessman and "vocal supporter of the Conservative party" had left others to plug a GBP571 million hole in staff pensions. Retailer BHS has collapsed into administration after last-ditch talks to find a buyer failed over the weekend, threatening the closure of up to 164 stores and putting 11,000 jobs at risk. Business minister Anna Soubry told the House of Commons the BHS pension scheme is in the early stages of an assessment by the Pension Protection Fund.
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Voters in five north-eastern US states will weigh in Tuesday on their choices to represent the Republican and Democratic parties in the November presidential election. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton hope to cement their leads by amassing substantial portions of the delegates up for grabs Tuesday in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
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US President Barack Obama announced on Monday he has approved the deployment of an additional 250 troops to Syria to support local forces in the fight against Islamic State. "They are not going to lead the fight on the ground but help in assisting local forces in pushing Islamic State back," Obama said in Hanover, Germany. He said the political initiative for peace was also needed "to end the suffering in Syria."
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: CREDIT SUISSE RAISES SMITHS GROUP TO 'OUTPERFORM' ('NEUTRAL')
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TRADERS: RBC CAPITAL CUTS CLOSE BROTHERS TO 'UNDERPERFORM' ('SECTOR PERFORM')
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JPMORGAN CUTS THOMAS COOK TO 'NEUTRAL' ('OVERWEIGHT') - TARGET 100 (170) PENCE
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TRADERS: JEFFERIES RESUMES PREMIER FOODS WITH 'BUY'
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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BP said it swung to a loss in the first quarter of 2016 compared to a year earlier, but its loss was an improvement on the fourth quarter of 2015. The oil and gas major said its loss for the first quarter was USD583.0 million, compared to a USD2.6 billion profit a year earlier. The loss narrowed from the USD3.3 billion loss made in the fourth quarter of 2015. Underlying replacement cost profit, the preferred measure for analysts, fell to USD532.0 million from USD2.58 billion a year earlier but again improved on the USD196.0 million profit in the fourth quarter. BP said it will pay a 10.00 US cents dividend for the quarter, flat year-on-year.
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British American Tobacco reported growth in revenue in the first quarter of 2016, but warned that adverse foreign exchange rates could hit profit in the full year. The tobacco company said revenue in the three months ended March 31 grew by 1.7% on the same period the prior year, although this was held back by unfavourable movements in foreign exchange rates. Revenue would have grown by 7.5% at constant currencies. Cigarette volume rose by 3.6% in the quarter.
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Whitbread reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year driven by sales growth at both the Premier Inn and Costa brands, and said it is confident in making further progress in the new year. The hotel and coffee shop owner said its pretax profit in the year ended March 3 grew to GBP487.7 million from GBP463.8 million the year before, as revenue rose to GBP2.92 billion from GBP2.61 billion. Whitbread will pay a total dividend of 90.35 pence for the year, a 10% increase on the 82.15p paid the year before.
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Kulczyk Investments completed the sale of GBP1.00 billion worth of shares in brewer SABMiller. Kulczyk placed 24.0 million SABMiller shares, or around 1.5% of the company, through Credit Suisse Securities. The shares were sold at 4,180 pence per share. SABMiller shares were down 0.3% to 4,205.5p early Tuesday. Following completion, Kulczyk will hold 1.5% of SABMiller shares.
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Wealth manager St James's Place shrugged off stock market volatility in the opening months of 2016 to report higher funds under management in the first quarter. Net inflows of client funds amounted to GBP1.36 billion in the three months ended March 31, versus GBP1.32 billion the corresponding quarter a year earlier. That helped to boost funds under management to GBP62.02 billion at the end of March, from GBP58.61 billion at the start of the quarter and GBP55.81 billion a year earlier. St James's Place had a GBP0.79 billion net investment return in the first quarter, versus GBP2.48 billion the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
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Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays, would "recuse" himself from talks in the event his London-listed African banking company Atlas Mara moves ahead with a plan to combine with his former employer's African arm. In a statement, Atlas Mara confirmed it had talks with a group of investors exploring an acquisition of Barclays' 62% stake in Barclays Africa. The talks also covered a potential combination of Atlas Mara with those Barclays assets. Members of the investor group include Atlas Merchant Capital, founded by Bob Diamond, and the Mara Group, founded by Ashish Thakkar. Both Diamond and Thakkar are founders and non-executive directors of Atlas Mara.
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AstraZeneca late Monday said the US Food & Drug Administration has approved Bevespi Aerosphere for treating sufferers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The product is a twice-daily, fixed-dose treatment and is the first product to be approved using the drugmaker's Co-Suspension technology, which allows the delivery of one or more different medicines from a single inhaler.
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Unilever late Monday said it priced EUR1.5 billion in bonds on European markets. The bonds comprise EUR300 million of 0% fixed rate notes due in April 2020, EUR500 million of 0.5% fixed rate notes due in April 2024, and EUR700 million of 1.1% fixed rate notes due in April 2028.
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Moody's Investors Service upgraded its rating on travel company TUI on Monday to Ba2 from Ba3 following a robust performance for the group in its 2015 financial year, to the end of September, and the first quarter of its new year.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Cobham said trading in the first quarter missed its expectations and said it will launch a GBP500.0 million rights issue in the second quarter of 2016. The defence technology company said its trading profit in the first quarter was GBP15.0 million, well behind the GBP50.0 million made in the first quarter of 2015. The hit to its earnings, coupled with investment requirements in long-term development programmes, means Cobham now expects its group leverage may be close to a net debt to earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation ratio of 3.5 times by the end of June. Therefore, the group has decided to cut its indebtedness and said it intends to raise GBP500.0 million through a fully-underwritten rights issue of shares in the second half.
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Investment company Allied Minds said it secured funding commitments for up to ten drug discovery programmes through its newly formed ABLS Capital business. Allied Minds said it secured USD80.0 million from investors for the ABLS Capital business, including Woodford Investment Management and Invesco Asset Management. ABLS will fund 80% of the lead optimisation phase of up to ten new drug candidates which pass initial feasibility studies funded by Allied Bristol Life Sciences, a partnership with US drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb. The remaining 20% will be funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
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Countrywide said it began 2016 with "real momentum", as transactions on buy to let properties and second homes accelerated ahead of the introduction of a new 3.0% stamp duty surcharge, but the group warned the housing market could slow in the second quarter. The estate agency and property services company said house exchanges across the group in the three months to March 31 were 30% ahead of the same period last year, which it said was reflected in a strong performance from both its Financial Services and Business to Business divisions. However, Countrywide noted that this was compared to a subdued first quarter in 2015 ahead of the UK general election.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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German conglomerate Bayer reported that its first-quarter net income climbed 13.3% to EUR1.51 billion from last year's EUR1.33 billions. Core earnings per share from continuing operations rose to EUR2.37 from EUR2.08 last year. The company noted that earnings expanded in all segments. Group sales rose 0.5% in the quarter to EUR11.94 billion from EUR11.88 billion a year ago.
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French telecommunications company Orange Group reported that, excluding the impact of the employee shareholding operation, first-quarter restated EBITDA rose 0.3% and the restated EBITDA margin fell 0.1 percentage point. Restated EBITDA for the first-quarter of 2016 was EUR2.57 billion, a decrease of 1.6% on a comparable basis, while the restated EBITDA margin declined 0.6 percentage point. First-quarter revenue was EUR10.01 billion, up 0.6% on comparable basis.
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French industrial gases company Air Liquide reported that its first-quarter group revenue reached EUR3.87 billion, up 2.4% on a comparable basis and down 3.1% on a reported basis compared with a year ago. First-quarter sales in Gas & Services, which amounted to EUR3.55 billion, rose by 4.2% on a comparable basis and fell 1.8% on a reported basis.
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The US Department of Justice announced a settlement that permits Charter Communications to complete its USD78 billion proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable and its related USD10.4 billion acquisition of Bright House Networks from Advance/Newhouse Partnership. The settlement forbids the merged company, referred to as "New Charter", from entering into or enforcing agreements that could make it more difficult for online video distributors to obtain video content from programmers.
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Chemical giant EI DuPont De Nemours & Co, which is in deal for an all-stock merger of equals with Dow Chemical, reported its net income attributable to the company for the first-quarter rose to USD1.23 billion or USD1.39 per share from USD1.03 billion or USD1.13 per share in the same quarter last year. Quarterly sales totalled USD7.4 billion, a decline of 6% versus prior year due to negative impacts from currency (4%) and volume (2%).
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Tuesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
Harworth Group
Dialight
EMIS Group
Modern Water
Murray International Trust
Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust
STV Group
Polar Capital Global Financials Trust
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group
RPS Group
Equiniti Group
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]; @thomaslwaite
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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