7th Mar 2019 08:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks started Thursday's session on the back foot, hindered by a raft of ex-dividend stocks, while insurers Admiral and Aviva also were among the fallers following their annual results. The FTSE 100 index was 29.89 points lower, or 0.4%, at 7,166.11 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 114.51 points, or 0.6%, at 19,244.70, while the AIM All-Share index was down 0.3% at 914.27.The Cboe UK 100 index was down 0.4% at 1,167.49, while the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.6% at 17,233.39, and the Cboe UK Small Companies down 0.1% at 11,151.06.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was 0.5% lower. In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.7%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong finished down 0.9%.A slew of ex-dividend stocks weighed on the FTSE 100 on Thursday, including miner Rio Tinto, down a sharp 7.6%, steelmaker Evraz, down 6.3%, housebuilder Persimmon, down 5.8%, and emerging markets-focused bank Standard Chartered, down 2.1%.Admiral was among the blue-chip losers, shedding 2.7% despite posting a rise in profit and raising its full-year dividend. Annual pretax profit rose 18% to GBP476.2 million, as net revenue increased 12% to GBP1.26 billion. Admiral raised its full-year dividend by 11% to 126.0p."2018 was another pleasing result with rapid growth and record profit for the group," said Chief Executive David Stevens. "It was, however, characterised by some "yes, but's", as well as some unequivocal YES's!""Yes, we delivered record profits and dividends, but we were helped by the UK government's decision to unwind partially the change in the Ogden discount rate from a couple of years ago," he said. "Yes, we grew rapidly pretty much across the board, but growth in the core UK Motor business slowed in the second half as we reduced our competitiveness in the face of rising claims costs."An "unequivocal" 'yes', Stevens said, was the "rapid growth and improved ratios" achieved by its international insurers.Fellow insurer Aviva also was knocked back in early trade, losing 1.9%, as it set out plans to rein in dividend growth going forward to allow new Chief Executive Maurice Tulloch "flexibility" to pursue his strategic agenda.Gross written premiums totalled GBP28.66 billion in 2018, up from GBP27.61 billion in 2017, with net earned premiums up to GBP26.25 billion from GBP25.22 billion.However, pretax profit slipped to GBP1.65 billion from GBP2.37 billion. Operating profit, meanwhile, rose 2% to GBP3.12 billion.Aviva's total dividend for 2018 is 30.0p, up 9% from 27.4p in 2017.However, the company added: "We are moving to a progressive dividend policy. Moderating the rate of dividend per share growth will enhance our flexibility to repay debt and invest in business improvement. The future trajectory of the dividend will reflect performance against our strategic objectives."Aviva said that its new policy should "afford the new CEO greater flexibility to implement his strategic agenda while protecting the current dividend per share for our existing shareholders". Maurice Tulloch was named on Monday as the new Aviva chief executive, being promoted from head of its International Insurance arm.Industrial turnaround firm Melrose Industries sat atop the FTSE 100, gaining 4.7% after saying its 2018 results were above previous board expectations despite its loss widening following the acquisition of engineer GKN completing last year.The 2018 figures include eight months' contribution from GKN, which Melrose bought following an acrimonious takeover battle.Revenue for the year totalled GBP8.62 billion, up sharply from GBP2.09 billion in 2017, as Melrose's loss widened to GBP550 million from GBP28 million last year. This was largely due to "significant acquisition related items", most of which arose from GKN.On an adjusted basis, including GKN as if it had been a part of the Melrose group for twelve months, revenue was GBP12.25 billion and pretax profit GBP886 million."The former GKN businesses are proving their potential to offer the outstanding opportunities we expected and much has already been achieved in the short period of ownership," said Melrose Chair Justin Dowley."Despite the current economically uncertain environment, we have every confidence that we will be able to continue to unlock the substantial shareholder value from the former GKN businesses and further improve Nortek," Dowley added.In the FTSE 250, Just Eat fell 1.3% after Barclays and Morgan Stanley both cut their respective ratings on the online takeaway platform to Equal Weight from Overweight. The economic events calendar on Thursday has eurozone GDP readings at 1000 GMT and the US EIA natural gas storage change report at 1530 GMT.In focus on Thursday is the latest ECB monetary policy decision, due at 1245 GMT, followed by a press conference with President Mario Draghi at 1330 GMT.The decision comes alongside updated macroeconomic forecasts."Should ECB President Mario Draghi signal that uncertainty regarding the economic outlook remains high and that further adjustments may be necessary the market might already anticipate a further postponement of the rate hikes," said Commerzbank analyst Thu Lan Nguyen."Everything all told in my view the risks for the euro are more likely to point to the downside," the Commerzbank analyst added.
Related Shares:
AdmiralAvivaRio TintoJust EatStandard CharteredEvrazMelrosePersimmon