23rd Apr 2019 07:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening higher on Tuesday following the long Easter weekend, as the pound slipped below USD1.30.In early UK company news, British Land announced the sale of 12 Sainsbury's superstores. Ferrexpo hiked its dividend 40%, citing a strong market environment for high-grade iron pellets.IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open up 34.22 points at 7,494.10. The blue chip index closed down 11.44 points, or 0.2%, at 7,459.88 on Thursday.Property developer British Land said it sold 12 superstores from its joint venture with supermarket chain J Sainsbury for GBP429 million. British Land is to receive GBP193.5 million in proceeds from the superstores sale."We have a clear view of the value of our assets and despite the clear challenges currently in the retail market, we remain opportunistic and proactive. As a result, we have exchanged or completed on nearly GBP1 billion of retail assets sales since April 2018 at an average yield of 5.7% on terms marginally ahead of book value. This activity has included the sale of Debenham's Clapham and the Spirit pubs portfolio," British Land said. Ferrexpo hiked its annual dividend despite a decline in profit.Publishing its delayed 2018 results, the iron miner said revenue rose 6.4% to USD1.27 billion from USD1.20 billion in 2017, but pretax profit declined 13% to USD392 million from USD450 million. The company said profit was hurt by increased production costs, lower sales volumes, and an operating foreign exchange loss compared with a gain in 2017.Despite this, Ferrexpo hiked its dividend 40% to a "record" 23.1 US cents from 16.5 cents in 2017. "Our balance sheet is now strong and this gives us a platform to deliver the next stage in our planned expansion. This year we plan to increase investment once more to be able to hit our medium-term production target of 12 million tonnes per annum by 2021 and lay the foundations for our longer-term intention to move to annual output of 20 million tonnes per annum," said Chair Steve Lucas.Africa-focused airline Fastjet said revenue from continuing operations increased by 166% to USD38.3 million in 2018 from USD14.4 million in 2017. The company attributed the rise to an increase in passenger numbers of 45% in Zimbabwe and 575% in Mozambique.However, Fastjet incurred an operating loss from continuing operations for 2018 of USD41.2 million, widened from USD11.2 million in 2017. The company said this was due to one off exceptional items which from its capital raise in December , which triggered one-off impairments of USD23.9 million. The airline reported a cash balance on March 31 of USD2.9 million, of which USD1.5 million is restricted inside Zimbabwe. Looking ahead, Fastjet expects a marginal underlying operating profit in 2019, excluding foreign exchange losses in Zimbabwe."Despite the impact of cyclones in Mozambique at the start of the current year and continued fuel protests and currency volatility in Zimbabwe, fastjet is making progress and expects to generate a marginal underlying operating profit for 2019, with further route expansion planned for Zimbabwe in the second half of the coming year, as well as a brand entry into South Africa in 2020," said Chief Executive Nico Bezuidenhout.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is flat, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.2.The pound was quoted at USD1.2977 early Tuesday, down from USD1.3004 at the London equities close Thursday.UK Prime Minister Theresa May is set to chair a meeting of her top ministerial team as MPs return to Westminster following the Easter break.The prime minister will convene her Cabinet on Tuesday morning while cross-party talks between the government and the Labour Party will resume in a fresh bid to break the Brexit impasse.Ministerial discussions are expected in the afternoon, with May's de facto deputy David Lidington, Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay and chief whip Julian Smith representing the government.On Monday it emerged the PM could face an unprecedented vote of confidence in her leadership after 70 local Conservative association chiefs signed a petition in support of a poll. They called for an extraordinary general meeting of the National Conservative Convention to discuss the prime minister's leadership of the party, the Telegraph reported.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended broadly higher, with the S&P 500 up 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.2% but the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2%.The economic events calendar on Tuesday has eurozone consumer confidence at 1500 BST.
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