20th May 2019 07:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were seen opening higher on Monday amid mixed trading in Asia, ahead of another busy week of company earnings reports and politically sensitive elections to the European Parliament.In early company news, Ryanair Holdings annual profit slumped 40% on higher fuel costs, Softcat said trading remains in line with expectations, and Provident Financial received the backing of one of its major shareholders in its ongoing battle with Non-Standard Finance. WYG agreed to a GBP43.4 million takeover.IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open up 11.68 points at 7,360.30. The blue-chip index closed down 4.89 points, or 0.1%, at 7,348.62 on Friday.Irish carrier Ryanair Holdings reported a significant fall in its annual profit due to increased fuel, airport and staff costs.For the financial year that ended March 31, the Irish budget airline reported pretax profit of EUR948.1 million, down 41% from EUR1.61 billion the year prior. This included a pretax loss of EUR182.7 million at Lauda, Ryanair's Austrian airline established by former Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda and acquired by Ryanair in December.Group revenue rose 6% to EUR7.69 billion from EUR7.15 billion, with an increase in both scheduled and ancillary revenue.Fuel & oil costs rose 23% to EUR2.42 billion from EUR1.90 billion, staff costs increased 28% to EUR945.0 million from EUR738.5 million, and airport charges rose 9% to EUR1.02 billion from EUR938.6 million, hurting profit.Estate agent Foxtons Group, ahead of its annual general meeting, said its first quarter performance was in line with the board's expectations.For the quarter ended March 31, revenue was GBP23.8 million compared to GBP24.5 million in the first quarter last year. The company said revenue in its sales business declined as conditions in the London property market remains "very challenging". Moreover, Foxtons said sales volumes continue to be at record low levels and ongoing Brexit uncertainty is hurting consumer confidence. Revenue in its lettings business was marginally ahead of the prior year, continuing its progress following the initiatives the company implemented in 2018. Subprime lender Provident Financial received the backing of one of its prominent shareholders as it fends off the advances of smaller peer Non-Standard Finance.Asset manager Schroders, which holds a 15% stake in Provident, reiterated its view that Non-Standard Finance's offer is not in the best interest of Provident shareholders. Last week, Non-Standard Finance said its offer for Provident Financial has become unconditional."We remain of the view that it is in the best interests of those Provident Financial shareholders who are not also shareholders in Non-Standard Finance to reject the NSF offer and continue to hold premium listed PFG stock, confident in the protection for minority shareholders that this provides," said Kevin Murphy, fund manager at Schroders.IT infrastructure and services provide Softcat said it has continued to perform well in its third quarter and has delivered strong year-on-year growth across its income and profit measures.Softcat said it is confident in delivering annual results "slightly" ahead of expectations.Project management consultant WYG has agreed to GBP43.4 million all-cash takeover offer from Tetra Tech. The 55 pence per share offer has acceptances representing 72.5% of WYG shares, it said.WYG said the combination with Tetra Tech will create a premier international consulting, engineering and project management firm.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.7%Japan's gross domestic product climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.5% on quarter in the first quarter of 2019, the Cabinet Office said in Monday's preliminary reading.That beat forecasts for a fall 0.1% and was up from the downwardly revised 0.4% gain in the three months prior, which was originally reported as 0.5%. On an annualized yearly basis, GDP was up 2.1% - again exceeding expectations for a fall of 0.2% following the downwardly revised 1.6% gain in the previous three months - originally 1.9%.In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4%, S&P 500 down 0.6% and Nasdaq Composite ending 1.0% lower.The pound was quoted at USD1.2734 early Monday, flat against USD1.2737 at the London equities close Friday.UK Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to make a "bold offer" to members of Parliament in a final attempt to get her beleaguered Brexit deal through Parliament and onto the statue book before she leaves office.Minister will begin discussions on Monday on a package of measures to be included in the forthcoming Withdrawal Agreement Bill aimed at securing cross-party support. The weekly meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday will then consider plans for a series of "indicative votes" in the Commons to establish which proposals could command a majority in the House.The move follows the final collapse on Friday of cross-party talks with Labour aimed at finding an agreed way forward which would allow Britain to leave the EU with a deal."As it becomes clearer that Prime Minister Theresa May's premiership is in its final death throes attention is shifting to a number of different outcomes, including but not confined to, who her successor is likely to be, the collapse of the government, a new election and the prospect of a possible minority Labour government," added Hewson.The economic events calendar on Monday has eurozone current account numbers at 1000 BST.