Croda Int.6.6pf Share News (49GP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening lower on Tuesday amid strength in the pound after the UK opposition party said it would support a second Brexit referendum.In UK corporate news, Persimmon reported a rise in annual earnings and made its interim chief executive permanent. Croda International delivered a year of profit growth, while Standard Chartered's annual earnings missed expectations. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 42.24 points lower at 7,141.50. The blue chip index closed up 5.14 points, or 0.1%, at 7,183.74 Monday.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.9%.Persimmon reported double-digit growth in profit in 2018, exceeding GBP1 billion for the first time, boosted by higher average selling prices, but said its sales volumes have slowed at the start of 2019.In addition, Persimmon said it has appointed David Jenkinson as permanent chief executive with immediate effect. Jenkinson was serving as interim CEO since November last year and has been with the company for 22 years."Since his appointment as interim CEO last year Dave has shown both strong leadership in maintaining the company's track record of operational excellence but also that he is listening carefully to the views of all our stakeholders," said Chair Roger Devlin.The FTSE 100-listed housebuilder reported pretax profit of GBP1.09 billion for 2018, up 13% from GBP966.1 million the year before, on revenue that rose by 3.9% to GBP3.74 billion from GBP3.60 billion.Croda International said 2018 was a year of sustained sales and profit growth as it delivered enhanced shareholder returns.The speciality chemicals company reported annual pretax profit rose 1.2% to GBP317.8 million from GBP314.1 million in 2017, and revenue increased 1.0% to GBP1.39 billion from GBP1.37 billion the year before.Croda raised its final dividend by 7.4% to 87.0p alongside a special dividend of 115.0p."Looking ahead, whilst global market conditions remain challenging, we continue to invest for the future and are confident that our strategy of Growing the Core and Stretching the Growth will deliver further progress in 2019," the company said.Standard Chartered's annual profit came in below the market's expectations on Tuesday, while it also announced further strategic plans for the next three years, including the sale of its Indonesia joint venture PT Bank Permata.The FTSE 100 emerging markets bank also significantly increased its final dividend, by 36% on the prior year. It is paying 15 US cents as a final payout, taking the total for 2018 to 21 cents compared to 11 cents in 2017. Consensus had been for a 19.7 cent total return.Pretax profit on a statutory basis rose to USD2.55 billion in 2018 from USD2.42 billion, but this is short of consensus of USD2.98 billion. On an underlying basis, pretax profit was USD3.88 billion from USD3.01 billion.The rise in profit, StanChart said, was due to higher quality income alongside cost and asset origination discipline.

StanChart shares were up 2.2% in Hong Kong.RSA Insurance Group said it appointed Non-Executive Director Charlotte Jones as its new chief financial officer. Jones is currently CFO at midcap asset manager Jupiter Fund Management and will remain in the role until August. Jones will replace Scott Egan who is moving to head up the FTSE 100 insurer's UK & International division. Jupiter said it has started the search for a new CFO.Defence and aerospace company Meggitt reported a 5.2% drop in annual pretax profit to GBP216.1 million from GBP228.3 million in 2017; however revenue rose 4.5% to GBP2.08 billion from GBP1.99 billion. Underlying operating profit, the group's preferred measure of trading performance, was up 4% to GBP367.3 million from GBP353.3 million in 2017. Meggitt declared a final dividend of 11.35p up from 10.80p in 2017. "The outlook for our civil markets continues to be positive. The fundamental driver of our business is air traffic, which continues to grow ahead of the long run average of 4% to 5% per annum. This is being achieved through increased production of large jets and the increased shipset values we have secured on the latest generation of aircraft will underpin organic civil OE revenue growth over the medium term ahead of overall market growth. This growth will be partly offset by the expectation that regional jet deliveries continue to fall in 2019 and that growth in business jets is slower than the 20% achieved in 2018, the company said. The pound was quoted at USD1.3136, higher than USD1.3065 at the London equities close Monday.The UK Labour Party announced it will back a second referendum to prevent a "damaging Tory Brexit" if its withdrawal plan is rejected by members of Parliament this week.Jeremy Corbyn said he would put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to stop UK Prime Minister Theresa May's deal being "forced on the country" if his Brexit demands are not met.The move came as pressure mounted on May to rule out a no-deal Brexit after three ministers threatened to support a fresh attempt to extend Article 50 and stop Britain being "swept over the precipice on March 29".May will address MPs on Tuesday afternoon ahead of another series of Brexit votes on Wednesday.The government is expected to publish previously unseen Cabinet papers setting out the dangers of a no-deal Brexit before the debate.In the economic calendar on Tuesday are BBA mortgage approvals numbers for the UK at 0930 GMT. US housing starts are at 1330 GMT, with the US Redbook index at 1355 GMT.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.2%, S&P 500 up 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.4%.US stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Monday after an early boost from President Donald Trump announcing on Sunday he intends to postpone a planned increase in US tariffs on Chinese imports.House Democrats plan to vote Tuesday on a resolution to cut off the US national emergency declared by Trump over the situation on the US-Mexico border. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the emergency declaration is "a presidential power grab" that violates the US constitution.On the US earnings front, retail giants Home Depot and Macy's are among the companies due to report their quarterly results before the market open in New York.