12th Jun 2018 08:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened broadly flat, even as Halma rose after reporting annual revenue passed the GBP1.00 billion mark and Centrica benefited from a broker upgrade.The FTSE 100 index was essentially flat - down just 5.86 points - at 7,736.83 early Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was flat at 21,321.23. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 1,100.31.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.1% at 13,132.19, the Cboe UK 250 was flat at 19,477.58, and the Cboe UK Small Companies also was flat at 12,921.15.Health and safety firm Halma led the blue chips, opening up 2.1% as it reported pretax profit for the year to the end of March at GBP171.9 million, up 9% from GBP157.7 million the year before, on revenue that grew to GBP1.07 billion from GBP961.7 million.The increases were due to strong revenue growth in all regions, particularly Asia Pacific, which outperformed the UK for the first time with revenue of GBP174.9 million, compared to UK revenue for the year at GBP173.3 million.Halma has proposed a final dividend of 8.97 pence per share, leading to a total annual payout of 14.68p, up 7% from 13.71p.Utilities group Centrica was up 1.1% after Jefferies raised its rating on Centrica shares to Buy from Hold, and increased their price target to 165 pence from 140p.At the bottom of the index was financial services firm Old Mutual, down 0.4% after the Financial Conduct Authority said it would be investigating six firms as part of its thematic review into the fair treatment of long-standing customers. Old Mutual Wealth Life Assurance will be under investigation, as well Prudential's subsidiaries Prudential Assurance Co Ltd and Prudential Pensions Ltd.Shares in insurer and asset manager Prudential were down 0.3%.Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was off 0.3% in the blue chip index, after it and partner Eli Lilly took the decision to discontinue the phase three clinical trials of lanabecestat, an enzyme inhibitor for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, due to recommendations by an independent data monitoring committee.The committee concluded that the AMARANTH trial for early Alzheimer's and the DAYBREAK-ALZ trial for mild Alzheimer's dementia were unlikely to meet their primary endpoints and should be stopped for futility.AstraZeneca said the trial discontinuation will not have a material effect on its financial guidance for 2018, which is unchanged.In the FTSE 250, IMI stood on top, up 3.9% as Morgan Stanley upped the engineering firm to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised its price target to 1,410 pence from 1,180p.At the other end of the midcap index, residential developer Crest Nicholson Holdings opened down 5.9% as the worst performer as it reported a 2.0% dip in pretax profit to GBP74.8 million for the six months to the end of April from GBP76.2 million for the same period the year before.Headline gross margins for the period were at 23.6%, down from 26.3% the prior year due to flat pricing amid a backdrop of build cost inflation at 3% to 4%. As a result, operating margins for the full year are expected to be around 18%, at the bottom end of Crest Nicholson's guidance range at 18% to 20%.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3374 early Tuesday, lower than USD1.3382 at the London equities close on Monday, ahead of UK unemployment data at 0930 BST."The FTSE benefits from a weaker GBP, pushed lower by a combination of USD strength as the safehaven yen weakened. While a weaker GBP may help Miners, the stronger USD may hurt metals. The GBP could also be a Brexit punchbag ahead of a potential 48 hours of Commons debate and voting on the Brexit Withdrawal Bill," said Michael van Dulken, head of Research at Accendo Markets.Theresa May is facing 48 hours of parliamentary warfare as the UK prime minister battles to get her Brexit legislation back on track.May appeared to have defused a potentially explosive row over the EU customs union as Tory pro-Europe rebels and Brexiteers came together to table a compromise amendment.However, the government remained vulnerable to a humiliating defeat on giving Parliament a decisive say over what happens next if it rejects a final Brexit deal as the EU (Withdrawal) Bill returns to the Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday for crunch votes.Meanwhile, the US-North Korea summit concluded in Singapore on Tuesday. "The initial summit outcome looked promising, both leaders sounding cordial notes during the press conference and signing a bilateral agreement that appears to have North Korea pledging comprehensive de-nuclearisation as a step towards lifting North Korean sanctions and a formal end to the Korean War," Accendo's Van Dulken said.North Korea reaffirmed its "firm and unwavering commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" in a historic joint agreement signed in Singapore by US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday.In exchange, Trump committed to provide "security guarantees" to North Korea. The document concluded with both parties committing to hold further negotiations, led by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a high-level North Korean official, "at the earliest possible date". The euro was quoted at USD1.1795 early Tuesday, marginally lower from USD1.1803 at the European equities close Monday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 0.5% early Tuesday.In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.4%.