Ascent Resources Share News (AST)

LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares have opened lower Thursday, despite positive developments in the standoff between Greece and its eurozone creditors.

Shares of British Gas owner Centrica have dropped to the bottom of the FTSE 100 at the market open, down 7.7%, after it cut its dividend for the full year. Centrica swung to a loss in 2014 on the back of a significant impairment charge, and said it will reduce its costs and capital expenditure budget over the next two years in response to the low oil price.

Here is what you need to know at the UK market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.5% at 6,866.09
FTSE 250: down 0.1% at 16,982.18
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.1% at 707.82
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Hang Seng: closed for Chinese New Year holiday
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.4% at 18,264.79
DJIA: closed down 0.1% at 18,029.85
S&P 500: closed marginally lower at 2,099.68
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.5448
EUR-USD: up at USD1.1432

GOLD: up at USD1,216.62 per ounce
OIL (Brent): flat at USD59.34 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Thursday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in GMT)

China Chinese New Year
09:00 EU Current Account
11:00 UK CBI Industrial Trends Survey
11:00 Ireland Consumer Price Index
12:30 EU ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:00 US CB Leading Indicator
15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
15:00 US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks and Natural Gas Storage
16:30 Germany Buba President Weidmann speech
17:15 Canada BoC Governor Council Member Cote Speech
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Greece is expected to submit its proposal for a six-month loan extension on Thursday, with Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis expressing confidence it would be approved by other finance ministers by the end of the week. Varoufakis said the proposal will be submitted ahead of a Eurogroup working group meeting and "will satisfy the Greek side and the Eurogroup." He said a final decision will be taken on Friday on a teleconference with other eurozone finance ministers. In the meantime, the European Central Bank has thrown Greek banks a lifeline by agreeing to increase emergency liquidity funding available to them from EUR65 billion to EUR68.3 billion.
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The US Federal Reserve was in no hurry to signal a possible interest rate hike in January meeting, according to the minutes of the Fed's most recent policy meeting. However, that meeting took place before January's exceptionally strong jobs report was available, and a number of policy makers have since indicated a willingness to raise rates in June. The Fed said information reviewed for the January 27-28 meeting showed that economic activity expanded at a solid pace over the second half of 2014, and that labor market conditions had again improved in recent months. Even so, members agreed to continue to include language indicating that the Fed can "be patient" in beginning to normalize the stance of monetary policy, particularly given the dramatic drop in energy prices and low inflation.
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The Bank of Japan said the country's economy has continued to recover moderately in its Monthly Report on Recent Economic and Financial Developments. The bank said that recovery in private consumption remained sluggish in some areas though it repeated that private consumption as a whole has remained resilient against the background of steady improvements in the employment and income situation. The bank said that the annual consumer prices increase was around 0.5%. In the previous statement, the bank said that inflation was in the range of 0.5% to 1%.
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Japan's trade deficit fell by more than a half in January, the government said, as falling oil prices reduced the bill of imported fuel, and a weaker yen boosted exports. Japan has endured 31 months of trade deficit, the longest consecutive period since comparable records began in 1979, largely due to a massive rise in imported fuel for electricity generation. All Japan's nuclear reactors were taken offline after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which led to the country's worst nuclear accident at Fukushima. The deficit was down 59% last month to JPY1.18 trillion yen, with imports down 9% to JPY7.32 trillion from a record JPY8.05 trillion a year earlier.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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GOLDMAN REINITIATES LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE WITH 'NEUTRAL' - PRICE TARGET 2640 PENCE
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SOCGEN RAISES BRITISH LAND TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 1030 (810) PENCE
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SOCGEN RAISES LAND SECURITIES TO 'BUY' ('HOLD') - TARGET 1600 (1260) PENCE
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TRADERS: CANACCORD CUTS BRIT PLC TO 'HOLD' ('BUY') - TARGET 305 (270) PENCE
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GOLDMAN RAISES MAN GROUP TO 'CONVICTION BUY' ('NEUTRAL') - TARGET 210 (185) P.
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TRADERS: NUMIS CUTS WILLIAM HILL TO 'HOLD' ('ADD')
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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Centrica cut its dividend for the full year after swinging to a loss in 2014 on the back of a significant impairment charge, and said it will reduce its costs and capital expenditure budget over the next two years in response to the low oil price. For the year ended December 31, the owner of British Gas reported earnings before interest and tax of GBP1.74 billion, down 35% from GBP2.69 billion, driven by a fall in profit across all of its divisions. Centrica reported post-tax impairments of GBP1.38 billion on exploration, production and power assets to reflect the fall in oil and gas prices during the second-half of 2014, it said. The impairments led to Centrica reporting a GBP1.01 statutory loss attributable to shareholders for 2014, swinging from the GBP950 million profit reported in 2013. As a result of the swing to a loss, Centrica decided to reduce its full-year dividend for 2014, to 13.5 pence per share, which is down 21% from the 17.0 pence per share paid in 2013.
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Aerospace and defence group BAE Systems reported a higher profit for 2014, while revenue dipped during the year. The FTSE 100-listed company reported an operating profit of GBP1.30 billion, up from GBP806 million in 2013. Revenue decreased to GBP16.64 billion from GBP18.18 billion the year before, hit by adverse exchange rate movements, lower volumes in Land & Armaments, and the previous year's benefit from the one-off price settlement for Salam Typhoon. BAE Systems said the market is "competitive", but expects underlying earnings per share in 2015 to be "marginally higher" than in 2014, including some reliance on anticipated naval and aircraft orders. The group declared a total dividend per share of 20.5 pence for 2014, from 20.1 pence last year.
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Sports Direct International reported a 2.6% rise in group sales for the third quarter, and a 7.6% increase in gross profit. Sports Direct, the UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue, said it is "very confident" of achieving its full-year internal underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation target of GBP360 million. That would exclude charges for its Employee Bonus Share Schemes, it said.
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Beer and soft drinks giant SABMiller said Chief Financial Officer Jamie Wilson has resigned for "personal reasons", while current Strategy Director Domenic De Lorenzo will become acting CFO with immediate effect. In a statement, SABMiller said Wilson has stepped down from the board with immediate effect, and will leave the group at the end of March. De Lorenzo will be acting CFO until a permanent successor has been found, it said.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Go-Ahead Group, a provider of passenger transport services, said its profit before tax for the six months ended December 27, 2014 rose 11% to GBP44.7 million from the previous year's GBP40.3 million. Group revenue for the period rose 13.8% to GBP1.56 billion from GBP1.37 billion in the previous year. The majority of this increase was attributable to the rail division, predominantly due to the introduction of the GTR franchise on 14 September 2014.
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Rathbone Brothers reported its profit before tax for the year ended December 31, 2014 increased 3.4% to GBP45.7 million from GBP44.2 million in 2013. Total funds under management were GBP27.2 billion at December 31, 2014, up 24% from GBP22.0 billion a year earlier. Net interest income grew to GBP9.159 million from GBP8.608 millionin the prior year. Net fee and commission income rose to GBP187.51 million from GBP164.39 million in the prior year. The company proposed a 33 pence final dividend, up from 31p, making a total of 52p for the year, up from 49p.
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British drinks can maker Rexam confirmed the formal takeover offer from US rival Ball Corp, a cash and share deal valued at GBP4.3 billion. Under the terms of the takeover offer, for each Rexam share, Rexam shareholders will receive 407 pence in cash and 0.04568 new Ball shares, representing in aggregate 628 pence per Rexam share. Rexam shareholders will own roughly 19% of Ball's fully diluted shares outstanding.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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Air France-KLM reported fourth-quarter income before tax of EUR566 million, compared to a loss of EUR204 million, prior year. Revenue was EUR6.21 billion, compared to EUR6.12 billion, up 1.5%, but down 0.5% on a like-for-like basis.
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South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co is to acquire mobile wallet firm LoopPay, the electronics giant announced, in a move set to increase competition with Apple and others to become the world's most popular mobile payment system. US firm LoopPay will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung. No details were released about the value of the deal.
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Nestlé reported its net profit for fiscal 2014 rose CHF4.4 billion to CHF14.5 billion francs. The increase reflected the profit realised on the disposal of part of the stake in L'Oréal and the revaluation gain on the 50% of Galderma already held when the group brought its ownership from 50% to 100%. Reported earnings per share were 4.54 francs, up 45% from last year. Underlying earnings per share in constant currencies were up 4.4%.
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Reinsurer Swiss Re Ltd recorded an annual group net income of USD3.5 billion, versus USD4.4 billion in 2013, chiefly reflecting the effects of management actions taken to address the problematic pre-2004 US life business. In addition, the L&H Re results were impacted by the unwinding of an asset funding structure supporting a longevity transaction, the company said.
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Canadian gold producer Barrick Gold reported fourth-quarter net loss of USD2.85 billion or USD2.45 per share compared with a loss of USD2.83 billion or USD2.61 per share in the prior year. Results for the recent quarter included USD2.8 billion in after-tax impairment charges, primarily related to the Lumwana mine and the Cerro Casale project.
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Thursday's Scheduled AGMs/EGMs

Optos
Enegi Oil
Ascent Resources
Summit Corp
Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies
Computacenter
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By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com; @thomaslwaite

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