LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are set to open higher on Wednesday, following onfrom sharp gains seen on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the US central bank could lower interest rates.In London, Non-Standard Finance's hostile takeover of larger doorstep lending rival Provident Financial lapsed. FTSE 100-listed Aviva's chief financial officer has decided to step down, while Workspace reported a sharp rise in rental income. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 is set to open 7.01 points higher at 7,221.30. The blue chip index closed up 29.49 points, or 0.4%, at 7,214.29 on Tuesday.Non-Standard Finance's hostile GBP1.1 billion takeover for Provident Financial collapsed after the UK financial regulator blocked the deal on Tuesday.Non-Standard Finance said it would "lapse" the offer following discussions with regulatory authorities as it had received a low level of acceptances by Wednesday deadline to declare the offer bid wholly unconditional. As at Wednesday, Non-Standard Finance had received acceptances from around 54% of Provident investors. Non-Standard Finance explained that while it remains appropriately capitalised, due to the low level of acceptances received, "the enlarged Non-Standard Finance group would not have sufficient regulatory capital on a consolidated basis at completion due to the expected level of minority interests at that point".John van Kuffeler, Non-Standard Finance's group chief executive said: "I am very disappointed that despite our best efforts customers, employees and shareholders will not now benefit from our transformation plan to build a brighter future by combining Provident with Non-Standard Finance."Aviva said CFO Tom Stoddard will be stepping down at the end of June. Aviva said Stoddard will remain with the company until the end of 2019 to "support an orderly transition". Current Aviva UK Insurance CFO Jason Windsor has been appointed interim CFO for the group.Ryanair said its May traffic was up 13% year-on-year to 14.1 million customers. The budget airline operated 78,000 scheduled flights in May. Office space rental firm Workspace saw a sharp fall in pretax profit in financial 2019 due to a lower year-on-year valuation increase and lower disposals profits compared to the year before. In the twelve months to March 31, Workspace reported pretax profit of GBP137.3 million, down from GBP170.4 million. The company's trading profit increased 19%, however, to GBP72.4 million.Workspace hiked its full year dividend 20% to 32.87 pence.Card Factory said its first-quarter total sales were up 6.4% on a year before, with like-for-like sales in the three months to April 30 up 2.3%.Card Factory said its performance in the first quarter "represents an encouraging start to the year". The company's expectations for the full year remain unchanged.Go-Ahead said it has appointed Elodie Brian as chief financial officer on a permanent basis. Brian has been the firm's interim CFO since December. Speaking at the motoring association's AGM, AA said its trading in the period is in line with expectations and remains "well positioned" to meet its medium-term growth targets to financial 2023. AA also said it is "well positioned" to see Ebitda growth in financial 2020.AA's financial year ends January 31.Fed Chair Powell pledged the central bank will take appropriate actions to sustain the US economic expansion. Powell mentioned recent developments involving trade negotiations and other matters in opening remarks at a Chicago Fed conference on Tuesday, acknowledging that the Fed does not know how or when these issues will be resolved."We are closely monitoring the implications of these developments for the US economic outlook and, as always, we will act as appropriate to sustain the expansion, with a strong labor market and inflation near our symmetric 2% objective," Powell said.The rest of Powell's speech focused on longer-run issues, but the Fed chief's initial comments generated optimism about a potential interest rate cut and spurred a rally on Wall Street.Powell's comments come after St Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested in a speech on Monday that an interest rate cut "may be warranted soon" due in part to escalating global trade tensions.The Dow Jones Industrial Average ending up 2.1%, the S&P 500 up 2.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 2.7%.In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 closed up 1.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 0.1%, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.5%.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2706 early Wednesday, higher than USD1.2675 at the London equities close on Wednesday.US President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised a "phenomenal" trade deal between the UK and US on his second day of a three-day state visit to the UK. "As the UK makes preparations to exit the EU, the US is committed to a phenomenal trade deal between the US and the UK," Trump said. "There is tremendous potential in that trade deal, I say probably two and even three times what we're doing right now."The economic events calendar on Wednesday has Markit services PMI readings from France, Germany, the Eurozone and the UK at 0850 BST, 0855 BST, 0900 BST and 0930 BST, respectively.Later in the day, there is Eurozone producer price index at 1000 BST and US Markit PMI reading at 1445 BST.Already out, China's private sector activity growth moderated to a three-month low in May partly driven by softer rise in services activity, survey results published by IHS Markit revealed.The Caixin composite output index fell to 51.5 in May from 52.7 in April. Nonetheless, the score remained above 50.0 for the thirty-ninth consecutive month, suggesting continuing expansion in the sector.The services Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to a 3-month low of 52.7 in May from 54.5 in April. However, the score was consistent with a robust rise in output amid firm client demand.
5 Jan 2016 07:26
