18th Mar 2015 08:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares have opened higher in London Wednesday, continuing their gains this week, at the start of a day that will be dominated by central banks and the UK government budget presentation.
The Bank of England releases the minutes from its most recent monetary policy committee meeting at 0930 GMT, while Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is set to present the UK's government budget, his last before the general election in May, at 1230 GMT.
Afterward, focus will shift to the US, where the Federal Open Market Committee meeting ends at 1800 GMT, with a press conference by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen starting at 1830 GMT. Focus will be on whether the FOMC removes its language about being "patient" before raising interest rates.
Standard Chartered leads FTSE 100 gainers by some distance early Wednesday, up 5.6%, after the bank stock was upgraded by both Barclays and Bernstein.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 0.2% at 6,854.06
FTSE 250: up 0.1% at 17,226.08
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.2% at 717.12
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Hang Seng: closed up 0.9% at 24,120.08
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.6% at 19,544.48
DJIA: closed down 0.7% at 17,849.08
S&P 500: closed down 0.3% at 2,074.28
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.4745
EUR-USD: up at USD1.0604
GOLD: down at USD1,148.22 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD53.13 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)
09:00 Italy Global Trade Balance
09:30 UK Bank of England Minutes
09:30 UK ILO Unemployment Rate
10:00 EU Construction Output
10:00 EU Trade Balance
11:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
12:30 UK Annual Budget
14:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks
18:00 US Fed Interest Rate Decision
18:00 US Fed Monetary Policy Statement
18:00 US FOMC Economic Projections
18:30 US Fed press conference
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Home prices in majority of the Chinese cities continued to fall in February on weak demand, the National Bureau of Statistics said. On a monthly basis, home prices declined in 66 out of 70 cities surveyed by the government. In January, prices of new houses decreased in 64 cities. Compared with the same period of last year, house prices fell in 69 cities and remained unchanged in Xiamen.
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Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of JPY424.598 billion in February, the Ministry of Finance said - marking an annual improvement of 47%. The headline figure beat expectations for a shortfall of JPY986.6 billion yen following the JPY1.179 trillion yen deficit in January. Exports added 2.4% on year to JPY5.941 trillion, topping forecasts for a gain of 0.3% after surging 17% in the previous month. Imports dropped an annual 3.6% to JPY6.365 trillion versus forecasts for an increase of 3.2% after tumbling 9.0% a month earlier.
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Japan's economy is expected to continue its moderate recovery trend, the Bank of Japan reiterated in its Monthly Report of Recent Economic and Financial Developments. The BoJ maintained its overall economic assessment by repeating that the Japanese economy has continued its moderate recovery trend. It estimated that annual increase in consumer prices is in the range of zero to 0.5%. Inflation expectations appear to be rising on the whole from a somewhat longer-term perspective.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party was set to emerge as the big winner in national elections with almost all of the ballots counted early Wednesday. Likud was projected to take 29 seats while the centre-left Zionist Camp list was to take 24 seats, Israel Radio reported. The Joint List, a grouping of largely Arab parties, was expected to be the third biggest with 14 seats.
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The Ukrainian parliament passed an amendment stipulating that the separatist-held territories in the country's east will get political autonomy only after conducting local elections under Ukrainian law. Separatist leaders condemned the move, which was backed by 265 of 347 lawmakers, saying that it undermines last month's peace agreements. "The amendment represents a point of no return to the Minsk agreements," Denis Pushilin of the "Donetsk People's Republic" said according to the rebel-run Donetsk News Agency.
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Opposition Republicans in the US Congress proposed a budget that would balance the budget within nine years while repealing President Barack Obama's signature health-care programme. The proposal sets up a looming clash between Obama, a left-leaning Democrat, and conservative Republicans, who have majorities in both chambers of Congress, over spending for the 2016 budget year, which begins October 1. The budget debate follows Monday's reimposition of the statutory government debt limit. The cap had been temporarily suspended under February 2014 budget legislation, which has now expired with the national debt at USD18.1 trillion. The US Treasury expects to be able to keep up with government spending for several months before requiring congressional authorization to borrow money.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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BARCLAYS RAISES STANDARD CHARTERED TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('EW')
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BERNSTEIN RAISES STANDARD CHARTERED TO OUTPERFORM (UNDERPERFORM)
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BARCLAYS CUTS HSBC TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT') - PRICE TARGET 575 (685) PENCE
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TRADERS: CANACCORD RAISES DIRECT LINE TO 'BUY' ('HOLD')
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TRADERS: CITI RAISES BHP BILLITON TO 'BUY' ('NEUTRAL')
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TRADERS: PANMURE INITIATES BRITISH LAND WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 994 PENCE
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TRADERS: PANMURE INITIATES HAMMERSON WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 802 PENCE
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TRADERS: PANMURE INITIATES INTU PROPERTIES WITH 'SELL' - TARGET 288 PENCE
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TRADERS: PANMURE INITIATES LAND SECURITIES WITH 'BUY' - TARGET 1,470 PENCE
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Engineering company IMI said Robert Haldane Smith, Lord Smith of Kelvin, is to become its new chairman, effective after its annual general meeting on May 7. As a result of the appointment, Smith will step down as chairman of FTSE 100 power company SSE following that company's annual general meeting on July 23. SSE said he was stepping down earlier than originally intended.
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Smiths Group reported a slight drop in pretax profit in the first half of its financial year, as the strength of the pound weighed on translated overseas revenue and its detection business continued to struggle, but the company expects to report an improved performance excluding foreign exchange movements in the second half of the year. The engineering company reported a pretax profit of GBP131 million for the six months to January 31, down from GBP132 million a year earlier, as revenue slipped to GBP1.42 billion from GBP1.44 billion due to the strength of sterling. It raised its interim dividend to 13.00 pence from 12.75p a year earlier, which it said reflected the strong cash conversion.
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AstraZeneca said it had received positive top-line results from Phase III studies into investigative drug PT003 for the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The two 24-week studies looked at whether the treatment improved lung function in patients with the disease. PT003 is a twice-daily fixed-dose combination of glycopyrronium, a long-acting muscarinic antagonist, and formoterol fumarate, a long-acting beta-2 agonist. The treatment is delivered using a pressurised metered dose inhaler developed by Pearl Therapeutics, which was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2013.
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BG Group said it has produced its first oil from the Knarr field in the North Sea offshore Norway. In a statement, the oil and gas producer said the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage and offloading vessel had started production from the Knarr oil field in the North Sea, offshore Norway. The vessel has a production capacity of 63 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a storage capacity of 800 000 barrels. BG Group is the operator of the field with a 45% working interest.
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group said it will de-list its shares from Euronext Amsterdam due to the low trading volumes in its stock on that exchange. In a statement, the London-listed bank said it expects the cancellation of the listing to be April 17, meaning the last trading day will be the day before. RBS will retain its London listing and its American Depository Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange.
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British Land Co said it will undertake a GBP50 million internal refurbishment of the Meadowhall shopping centre near Sheffield, as the centre celebrates its 25th birthday in 2015, and it is hoping the refurbished centre will appeal to more premium and lifestyle retailers.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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International Public Partnerships said the parent company of its investment adviser, Amber Fund Management Ltd, has sold a 50% stake to US real estate group Hunt Companies Inc. Under the deal, on which IPP did not provide any financial details, Hunt will buy a 50% stake in the Amber group of companies, with the remaining stake to be held by existing management shareholders. As part of the deal, IPP will given a 'first look' over investment opportunities in the US that meet its investment criteria.
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Galliford Try said it has been appointed to the public sector construction frameworks for the south and north west of England. Galliford said it has been selected as one of six contractors on all three lots of the Southern Construction Framework, which will cover the South West, South East and London. On Tuesday, Kier Group and Morgan Sindall Group said they also were named on all three lots. In addition, Galliford has been appointed as one of the 11 contractors on the medium-value lot of the North West Construction Hub, which is worth up to GBP400 million over four years.
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Phoenix Group Holdings reported a jump in a key measure of operating profit in 2014, bolstered by the performance of the part of the group responsible for managing its life funds. The closed life fund consolidator said it made a GBP483 million operating profit in 2014, compared with GBP438 million in the prior year, as higher operating profit within Phoenix Life more than offset a fall in that reported by the Ignis operations sold to Standard Life PLC last year.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Ryanair Holdings, Europe's largest discount airline, plans to launch cheap transatlantic flights to as many as 14 US cities from Europe in four to five years' time, subject to acquisition of viable long-haul aircraft. "We would like to offer low-cost flights between 12 to 14 European cities and 12 to 14 US cities. The business plan is there but it's dependent on attaining viable long-haul aircraft and we estimate that's four to five years away," the company said in a statement. Ryanair did not name the US cities it plans to connect, but reports said the list includes Boston, New York, Chicago, and Miami.
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Imagination Technologies Group lowered its expectations for licence revenue growth, saying it now expects to post full-year licence revenue in line with the previous year, with the potential for single digit growth if remaining deals close on time, as licensing activity has been "a little muted" in its second half to date. In the previous year to end-April 2014, Imagination posted licensing revenue of GBP38.3 million. At the time of its interim results in December the company was targeting 10% growth in licensing revenue. Imagination Technologies is set to rejoin the FTSE 250 from next Monday.
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The participants in the Horse Hill prospect in Surrey reported a further analysis undertaken on the site has increased the potential oil pay. UK Oil & Gas Investments said testing on the Horse Hill-1 well carried out by NUTECH, located in the Weald Basin, has identified a further 407 net feet of potential oil pay calculated from electric logs within limestones and claystones in the Kimmeridge Clay, Oxford Clay and Middle Lias formations. The extra oil pay is in addition to the previously-reported 102 feet of Portland sandstone gross oil pay, UK Oil & Gas said.
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COMPANIES - OTHER
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Citigroup and Barclays are nearing a settlement totalling USD800 million with private investors to resolve charges of foreign exchange rate rigging, according to a Wall Street Journal report. However, its is not revealed as to how much Citigroup or Barclays would pay individually. The private forex lawsuit was filed by private investors in the US and the Caribbean, including pension funds and other investment firms, in late 2013. The lawsuit accuses traders at a dozen banks of improperly sharing confidential information about their clients' orders via electronic chat rooms, then using that information to make money at the expense of their clients.
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Software giant Microsoft said it will launch the much-awaited new version of its operating system, Windows 10, this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages around the world. This was revealed by Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Windows Terry Myerson at the Windows Hardware Engineering Community summit in China on Wednesday.
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Oracle said after the markets closed that its third quarter profit fell 3% from last year, hurt by a stronger US dollar and higher operating expenses. The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, came in line with analysts' expectations, but its quarterly revenue fell short of analysts' forecast. The company also raised its quarterly cash dividend by 25% to USD0.15 per share.
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Adobe Systems reported a surge in first-quarter profit after having added more subscribers to its Creative Cloud service and incurred lower non-operating expenses, partly offset by weak gross margins. The publishing and design software maker's earnings and revenue for the quarter topped Wall Street estimates. During the quarter, Adobe added a net 517,000 Creative Cloud subscribers,a 28% jump from last year.
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Toshiba said it would take part in the Levenmouth Community Energy Project in Fife, Scotland, a major 4-year project to investigate the potential of hydrogen as a future fuel. The project is funded by the Local Energy Challenge Fund, created in November 2014 by the Scottish Government. The project will run from 2015 to 2020 in a redevelopment area of the Methil Docks in Methil, Fife, Scotland's third largest council area.
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Wednesday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs
Domino Printing Sciences
Microgen
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]; @thomaslwaite
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
RYA.LAstrazenecaImagination Technologies GroupBritish LandHSBC HoldingsBHP Billiton PLCDirect LineGalliford TryStandard CharteredSSEPhoenix Group HoldingsMicrogenRBS.LLand SecuritiesUK Oil & GasHammersonSmiths GroupINTU.LIMIInternational Public PartnershipsBG..L