6th Feb 2014 11:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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Vodafone Group PLC confirmed its full-year guidance, expecting an adjusted operating profit of around GBP5.0 billion, as it saw group revenue decline 4.8% in the third quarter ended December 31, 2013. Including account mergers & acquisitions and currency changes, Vodafone posted service revenue of GBP9.86 billion for the quarter. The company saw revenue decline 9.6% in Europe, hit by mobile termination rate cuts and continued price competition in the region.
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AstraZeneca PLC said it saw revenue and pretax profit decline in the full year ended December 31, 2013, as it continued to be hit by the loss of exclusivity on several of its brands and increased competition from generics. The pharmaceutical giant posted revenue of USD25.71 billion, down 8.1% from USD27.98 billion in the previous year. Pretax profit was USD3.27 billion, down 57% from USD7.65 billion in the previous year. Pretax profit was hit by GBP1.42 billion in restructuring costs, and its USD1.76 billion impairment charge related to the under-performance of type-2 diabetes treatment Bydureon. AstraZeneca said it expects to see low-to-mid single digit percentage decline in revenue at constant exchange rates for 2014, with core earnings per share expected to decline in the teens. The company also reaffirmed that it continues to expect revenues to be return to 2013 levels by 2017.
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Shares in Supergroup PLC were on the rise, after the Superdry clothing-store chain owner reported another set of impressive trading results for the third quarter, with group sales rising 22% in the period, and said it is well placed to meet market expectations for the full year. The group said it is on track to reach forecasts for full-year pretax profit between GBP61.1 million and GBP65.9 million for the financial year ending April 26. The clothing retailer said total group sales for the 13-week period to January 26 increased by 22% to GBP141.1 million, while in the year to date sales are up 22% to GBP333.2 million. It said the margin gains achieved during the first half of the year were maintained in the third quarter, as it continued to focus on full-price trading to optimise profitability.
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Imagination Technologies Group PLC rose to the top of the FTSE 250 Thursday after it announced that it had extended its multi-year, multi-use license agreement with the US's Apple Corp. Under the agreement Apple can use Imagination's range of current and future PowerVR graphics and video IP cores in its smartphones, tablets and other devices. Imagination will receive on-going license fees and royalty revenues on the shipment of systems-on-a-chip using its intellectual property in Apple's products.
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Smith & Nephew PLC raised its full-year dividend despite a decline in pretax profit, as the medical products firm saw revenue rise in the full year ended December 31, 2013. Smith & Nephew announced a final dividend of 17.0 US cents, bring its full year dividend to 27.4 cents, up 5.0% from 26.1 cents the previous year. The medical technology company achieved revenue of USD4.35 billion, up from USD4.14 billion in the previous year. Pretax profit was USD802 million, down from USD1.09 billion in the previous year.
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Food and support services company Compass Group PLC said it has had a good start to the new financial year, with organic revenue growth, boosted by a good level of new business, and a stable retention rate for the group overall. Compass said after a good first quarter, it remains positive and confident in the group's trading expectations for the full year, supported by an encouraging pipeline of new contracts. However, the FTSE 100 group warned that trading results from its overseas operations could be hit by the strength of the sterling against major currencies if it continues.
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Travel operator TUI Travel PLC reported flat revenues for the first quarter of its new financial year, but managed to reduce its operating losses, with the help of strong demand for its unique-holidays range. The leisure travel company, owner of Thomson and First Choice, said it reduced its underlying operating losses by 6.9% to GBP108 million for the first quarter to end of December 2013, compared with GBP116 million a year earlier. On a statutory basis it reported an operating loss for the period of GBP134 million, down from GBP149 million.
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Irish low-cost airline, Ryanair Holdings PLC said traffic grew during January to 4.6 million customers and that it retained its load rate during the month, as it announced revisions to its on-board rules for personal electronic devices. Ryanair said customers flown in January rose by 5% to 4.6 million from the 4.3 million reported in January 2013 for the month. Load factor for the month remained unchanged at 71%.
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Low-cost airline easyJet PLC said it flew over 4 million passengers and improved its load factor in January, continuing its steady ascent after reporting strong Q1 figures during the month. The airline flew 4,021,678 passengers during January, up 3.7% on the 3,878,640 passengers flown in January 2013. easyJet said that load factor during the month also increased, up 1% to 85.4%.
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MARKETS
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Stock markets have started strongly, with the FTSE 100 recording its best gains for many sessions, led higher by house builders after Halifax said UK house prices are rising faster than expected.
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FTSE 100: up 58.84 at 6,516.73
FTSE 250: up 139.31 at 15,700.69
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 6.13 at 858.71
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The pound and the euro remain subdued ahead of the Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings at midday.
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GBP-USD: down at USD1.6290
EUR-USD: down at USD1.3526
GOLD: up at USD1,261.00 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD106.57 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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House prices in the UK rose by 7.3% in the three months to the end of January, slightly slower than the 7.5% rise seen in the previous three months, according to the Halifax house price index. Economists had expected prices to have risen by 7.2%. In the month of January alone, prices rose by 1.1%, recording a rise again from the 0.6% drop in December.
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A 48-hour strike by London Underground workers caused a second day of disruption for millions of commuters on Thursday, despite unions agreeing to fresh talks with management. Tube workers went on strike at 2100 GMT on Tuesday over hundreds of planned job cuts and ticket office closures. Union leaders have agreed to hold talks with London Underground on Friday, but insisted the strike would only end as planned at 2100 GMT on Thursday. They also refused to call off another 48-hour strike scheduled for next week.
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GERMANY DEC REAL SA MANUFACTURING ORDERS -0.5% M/M
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Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah misquoted Egyptian armed forces chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi when it reported that he had decided to run for president, the military said. "What the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah published were merely journalistic endeavours, and were not direct statements from Field Marshal al-Sissi," armed forces spokesman Colonel Ahmed Ali wrote on his official Facebook page. The Kuwaiti daily published a lengthy interview with al-Sissi in which he was quoting as saying that he had decided to run in the upcoming presidential elections. The electoral commission has not yet announced dates for the election or for receipt of nominations.
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The US government has warned airlines connecting to Russia during the Olympics to watch out for toothpaste tubes that could conceal materials to build a bomb aboard an airplane, broadcasters ABC and CNN reported. The Homeland Security Department declined to confirm specific warnings, saying only in an email that it "regularly shares relevant information" with airlines, including those involved in international events like the Winter Olympics, which opens Friday in the Russian resort of Sochi.
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced attacks on gay people and repeated his call for warring parties around the world to cease hostilities during the winter Olympics in Sochi. The call for a truce was joined by hosts Russia, which said Syria conflict in particular "threatens to destabilize the whole region."
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North Korea threatened to back out of cross-border family reunions over upcoming joint military drills by South Korea and the US. "Dialogue and exercises of war of aggression cannot go hand in hand," the North's National Defense Commission said in a statement broadcast on the state's radio, the South's Yonhap News Agency said. South Korea said it would go ahead with the drills in February as planned, the report said. North Korea says such manoeuvres are rehearsals for an invasion.
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Nearly three months after Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the central Philippines, the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall, the United Nations appealed to the international community to step up its aid for devastated areas still suffering from lack of shelter, power and lack of sources of livelihood. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said USD356 million had been donated so far.
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The bodies of eight miners have been found after fire erupted at a South African gold mine, the government said. One of the 18 workers who had been trapped underground was still missing, the news agency Sapa quoted the mineral resources ministry as saying. Eight others were rescued on Wednesday, while one had managed to get out himself. It was not clear what had caused the fire at a depth of 1.73 kilometres in the mine west of Johannesburg. The company Harmony Gold said it could have been started by seismic event that damaged electric cables.
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The latest winter storm dropped more than 30 centimetres of snow Wednesday across a wide swath of the northern US, stretching from Kansas to Massachusetts, leaving more than 1 million people without electricity. Half of those without power were in Pennsylvania. The snow affected transportation, causing cancellations of more than 3,000 flights, according to flightaware.com.
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Related Shares:
RYA.LAstrazenecaImagination Technologies GroupSuperGroupSmith & NephewVodafoneCompass GroupeasyJetTUI.L