21st Aug 2018 11:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London were mixed at midday on Tuesday, with BHP Billiton weighing on the FTSE 100 as its interim results disappointed.However, boosting the FTSE 250 were gains for John Wood Group and Aggreko.At midday, the FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, or 13.71 points, at 7,577.55. The FTSE 250 gained 0.4%, or 74.19 points, to 20,605.34 and the AIM All-Share was flat at 1,080.79.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.5% at 12,863.14 at midday, while the Cboe UK 250 climbed 0.7% to 18,683.25 and the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.1% at 12,199.78."A near-2% rebound from the lows of last week for the FTSE 100 has stalled this morning, although the overall environment for risk appetite looks encouraging. Two problems beset investors this morning, and both (unsurprisingly) emanate from the White House," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.The dollar declined after a report from Reuters said that US President Donald Trump accused China, as well as Europe, of manipulating their currencies and also said he was "not thrilled" with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for raising interest rates.Trump was also cautious on the progress expected from trade talks with China this week in Washington."Fed minutes, PMIs and Jackson Hole at the weekend mean that dollar bulls, while likely to be vindicated in the longer-term, are in for a tough few days," added Beauchamp.The pound was quoted at USD1.2834 at midday on Tuesday, from USD1.2761 late Monday, as the euro also gained against the dollar to be quoted at USD1.1525 at midday from USD1.1437 at the European market close on Monday.In mainland Europe on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both 0.8% higher at midday.Stocks in the US are pointed to a higher open on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all seen opening up 0.2%.In the economic calendar on Tuesday is the Redbook index at 1355 BST. Investors continue to look towards the release of minutes from the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve later in the week, as well as the annual gathering of central bankers at Jackson Hole.In UK data on Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics said the budget balance posted a surplus in July.Public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, was in surplus by GBP2.0 billion in July, a GBP1.0 billion greater surplus than in July 2017. This was the largest July surplus for 18 years.Public sector net debt totaled GBP1.77 trillion at the end of July, equivalent to 84.3% of gross domestic product.In the current financial year-to-date period, the budget deficit totaled GBP12.8 billion, which was GBP8.5 billion less than in the same period in 2017. This was the lowest year-to-date net borrowing for 16 years.In the FTSE 100 on Tuesday, Wm Morrison Supermarkets was the best performer up 1.2%.Kantar Worldpanel - reporting market share figures for the 12 weeks to August 12 - said branded products sales increased 3.9%, overtaking the total growth of supermarket-owned products for the first time since May 2015. Among the big four supermarkets, Morrisons regained the position of fastest growing - which it had lost to Asda last month - with sales up 2.7% and its market share flat at 10.4%.Paring some of its earlier gains, housebuilder Persimmon was up 0.5% at midday as it recorded a rise in profit for the first half of 2018.For the six months to the end of June, pretax profit totaled GBP516.5 million, up 13% from GBP457.4 million a year before, as revenue grew 5% to GBP1.84 billion from GBP1.75 billion.Miner BHP Billiton fell 1.2%, the worst blue-chip performer, as it bumped up its payout to shareholders following a sharp rise in interim earnings, though the latter came in below analyst forecasts.The total dividend for BHP's financial year was 118 cents, far higher than the 83 cents paid out a year earlier and above analyst consensus of a 116 cents return. BHP's pretax profit rose to USD14.75 billion from USD11.14 billion the prior year, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation was up 20% to USD23.18 billion. This excludes US shale operations, since sold off to BP, and falls short of analyst consensus of USD24.31 billion underlying Ebitda. Including US shale, the figure was USD24.11 billion. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, commented: "The market may be slightly disappointed that BHP hasn't declared a large share buyback like some of its peers in the natural resources industry. However, shareholders will eventually be getting a slice of the USD10.8bn proceeds from selling its onshore US business at some point in the future."Boosting the FTSE 250 were John Wood Group and Aggreko, up 5.8% and 4.6% respectively at midday.John Wood swung to a loss for the first half of the year, despite strong revenue growth, due to its purchase of Amec Foster Wheeler.The oilfield services firm turned to a loss of USD25.3 million from a USD13.5 million profit a year before, due to a one-off cost of USD101.1 million. The loss stemmed from bank fees related to the GBP2.20 billion acquisition of peer Amec Foster Wheeler, which completed in October. However, on an underlying basis, pretax profit rose to USD82.0 million from USD64.2 million. John Wood's revenue saw double digit growth, rising by 13% to USD5.38 billion from USD4.74 billion on a proforma basis the year before.Aggreko, meanwhile, was buoyed after HSBC raised its rating on the the temporary power generator supplier to Buy from Hold. Elsewhere on the Main Market, Hostelworld shed 8.4% after the company reported a drop in interim profit amid the introduction of its free booking cancellation policy.For the six months to the end of June, Hostelworld reported pretax profit of EUR2.8 million, down from EUR5.2 million the year before, on revenue that dropped by 9.0% to EUR42.6 million from EUR46.6 million.This was due to deferred revenue from free cancellation bookings, which corresponds to a 3.5% decrease on a constant currency basis.The total booking volume for the period, however, rose to 4.0 million from 3.9 million the year before, driven by a good performance in the core Hostelworld brand.Related Shares:
Wood Group (J)AGK.LHostelworldBHP Billiton PLCMRW.LPersimmon