LONDON (Alliance News) - UK stocks started Thursday lower, with satellite communications provider Inmarsat one of the biggest decliners in the FTSE 100 index after reporting slightly lower 2015 profit and flat revenue.
The FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, or 14.26 points, to 6,132.80. The index closed down 0.1%, or 5.82 points, at 6,147.06 on Wednesday as traders took profits after a strong run in London's blue-chip index, while late gains in oil prices were not enough to push stocks higher.
The FTSE 250 was down 0.2% at 16,702.62 and the AIM All-Share was down 0.1% at 696.13. In Europe, both the French CAC 40 and the German DAX 30 were flat.
In Asia Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.3%, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.4%, while the Hang Seng fell 0.3%.
Inmarsat proposed an increased dividend for 2015 as it reported a small fall in pretax profit for the year, and outlined expectations for revenue growth in the coming year.
Pretax profit was USD338.0 million, down slightly from USD342.3 million in 2014, as revenue slipped a little to USD1.27 billion from USD1.29 billion. On an adjusted basis, stripping out USD10.8 million in revenue in 2014 from energy-related assets that were sold, revenue was mostly flat.
The group proposed a final dividend of 31.78 cents per share, taking its total dividend for the year to 51.39 cents, up 5% from 48.49 cents a year before.
Inmarsat shares traded down 4.6%.
Elsewhere on the London Stock Exchange, Admiral Group was the best blue-chip performer, up 5.2%, after the motor insurer lifted its dividend and reported higher profit.
Pretax profit rose to GBP368.7 million in 2015, from GBP350.7 million the prior year, as net revenue increased to GBP904.8 million from GBP884.6 million and total expenses fell to GBP525.0 million from GBP529.3 million.
Admiral lifted its total dividend for 2015 to 114.4 pence from 98.4p.
"I would describe 2015 as: the year of the uncut diamond. When the year started many people thought it would turn out to be a lump of coal. But no, 2015 was no lumpy coal year," Chief Executive Officer Henry Engelhardt said.
Irish building materials group CRH, up 4.2%, reported growth in pretax profit and revenue in 2015 driven by acquisitions and a strong US market.
The FTSE 100-listed company said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was EUR1.03 billion, up from EUR761.0 million a year earlier, while revenue rose 25% to EUR23.64 billion from EUR18.91 billion thanks to the significant volume of acquisitions made in the year.
CRH acquired EUR6.5 billion of assets from France's Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim during the year, after the pair were forced to divest as part of their EUR41.0 billion merger. CRH also spent USD1.3 billion on US group CR Laurence Co Inc, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of customer hardware and installation products for the professional glazing industry.
Whitbread shares were down 3.9% even though the company reported growth in sales in both the 11 weeks and 50 weeks to February 11.
The hotel and coffee shop owner said total sales in the 11 week period grew 7.7%, while like-for-like sales increased by 1.7%. In the 50 weeks to the same date, total sales were up 10% as like-for-likes rose by 3.2%.
Whitbread said it expects to report full-year profit in line with expectations.
In the FTSE 250, aerospace company Cobham was the worst performer, down 7.6%. The company increased its dividend in 2015 after reporting robust underlying results, but group ultimately posted a pretax loss for the year after booking impairments and restructuring charges.
Cobham reported a pretax loss of GBP39.8 million in 2014, swinging from a GBP24.3 million profit in 2014 despite experiencing a 12% lift in revenue to GBP2.07 billion from GBP1.85 billion and improving its trading margin.
The loss was caused by finance costs rising to GBP57.0 million from only GBP39.7 million a year earlier, administrative costs increasing to GBP521.7 million from GBP403.7 million and higher selling and distribution costs of GBP130.1 million from GBP100.3 million last year.
Temporary power company Aggreko said its profit and revenue dipped in 2015 as it took a hit from the low oil price, a price reduction on a contract extension in Bangladesh, and slower payments in Venezuela and Yemen.
The FTSE 250-listed company said its pretax profit fell to GBP226.0 million in 2015 from GBP289.0 million in 2014, in line with its expectations as it took a hit from lower demand from the oil and gas industry and pricing pressures which drove its trading margin down to 16% from 19%.
Revenue fell to GBP1.56 billion from GBP1.57 billion the year before, holding up relatively well as Aggreko's diversity geographically offset the impact of lower commodity prices and weakening economic growth in emerging markets.
However, with Aggreko taking no unexpected charges, the group's shares were up 7.3%, making the company the best performer in the mid-cap index.
In the economic calendar, investors will be looking forward to Markit services and composite PMI readings from a number of countries. France is at 0850 GMT, Germany at 0855 GMT, the eurozone as a whole at 0900 GMT and the US at 1445 GMT. UK services PMI is at 0930 GMT and ISM non-manufacturing PMI for the US is at 1500 GMT.
There are also eurozone retail sales at 1000 GMT, US initial and continuing jobless claims at 1330 GMT at the same time as nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs data. US factory orders are at 1500 GMT and the energy information administration's natural gas storage is at 1530 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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