Barclays Share News (BARC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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AstraZeneca PLC maintained its full-year guidance for 2014, as it saw pretax profit drop in the first quarter to end-March, hit by write downs on the sale of its Alderley Park site and its acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's share of their diabetes alliance. The pharmaceutical giant posted a pretax profit of GBP638 million, down from GBP1.30 billion in the previous year, as revenue rose to GBP6.42 billion from GBP6.39 billion, damped partly by the weakening of the Japanese Yen against the US Dollar. At constant exchange rates, revenue rose 3%. AstraZeneca made no comment in its statement on the reported takeover approach by the US's Pfizer Inc.
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Unilever PLC reported another drop in revenues in the first quarter, as currency movements and weakness in emerging markets continued to weigh on its performance. Unilever, the maker of consumer products including Dove soaps and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, managed to report growth in sales and volumes helped by price increases, innovation and slight improvements in its food and refreshments businesses. However it said it faced slowing markets and a tough competitive environment in the first quarter. The group raised its quarterly dividend by 6% to EUR0.285.
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Barclays PLC's strategic cost management programme has partially offset challenging first-quarter for the investment bank's fixed income, credit, and commodities (FICC) business, and is expected to result in only a small reduction in adjusted pretax profit for the group, Chief Executive Antony Jenkins told shareholders. In a statement, Barclays said Jenkins will make the comments at the bank's annual general meeting, scheduled to begin at 1100 BST Thursday. The AGM has been hotly anticipated as the bank has been under fire for increasing its 2013 bonus pool despite a fall in adjusted pretax profit. "A number of actions are being taken to improve the performance of the group, with our strategic cost management program starting to provide a material benefit across all businesses in the first-quarter," Jenkins will say.
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Lloyds Banking Group PLC said it has appointed Nick Prettejohn as the chairman of Scottish Widows Group Ltd, meaning Lord Blackwell, who succeeded Win Bischoff as group chairman earlier in April, can concentrate on his new group role.
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Centamin PLC announced that a new investment law which came into effect in Egypt on Wednesday could help in its ongoing court appeal against claims made against it. The FTSE 250-listed metals and minerals producer said the new law will restrict the capacity for third parties to challenge any contractual agreement between the Egyptian government and an investor, which could result in a legal case against it being dismissed. Centamin said the new law appears to cover all currently pending lawsuits and challenges, noting that it is in discussions with its advisers over how the original claim against it, which was brought by a third party, private individual Engineer Hamdy El Fakharany, may be dismissed under the new law.
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African Barrick Gold PLC said its gold production increased in its first quarter, and it has begun a major operation to further increase production, but pretax profits and revenues fell due to the decline in gold prices during the last year. The East Africa-focused gold production company, said pretax profit during the three months ended March 31 fell 31% to USD31.3 million from USD45.5 million the previous year. African Barrick said that its revenues fell 12% to USD216.3 million from USD245.5 million as its average realised gold price during the period fell 19% to USD1,303 per ounce from USD1,610 per ounce the previous year.
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African Barrick Gold's majority owner Barrick Gold has sent an email to Newmont Mining Corp outlining revised terms for a merger between the two major gold miners which stalled last week, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter and said that Canada's Barrick has yet to receive a response from its US rival to the email, which was sent on Tuesday.
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Anglo American PLC said production has increased across its major operations in its first quarter, with the exception of platinum production, which fell due to strike action in South Africa, leading the company to revise down its 2014 platinum production guidance.
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Croda International saw its shares drop after the speciality chemicals company reported a 3.2% decline in revenue for the first quarter and pretax profit took a hit from adverse currency translation. In an interim management statement for the period since December 31, 2013, Croda said pretax profit saw a marginal increase, up to GBP65.2 million from the GBP65.1 million recorded last year. The company said revenue fell 3.2% to GBP274.0 million from GBP283.1 million last year, hit by adverse currency translation of 6.1% dragging reported sales in sterling lower. On a constant currency basis, group revenue was up 2.9% with acquisitions contributing 1.6% to this total, said Croda.
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Cobham PLC said trading for the first quarter has been in line with the board's expectations and it continues to plan for organic revenue to decline by low-to-mid single digits during the course of the year. In an interim management statement for the first three months of 2014, Cobham said that while trading has been in line, translation of the aerospace firm's revenue and earnings during the quarter have been hit by foreign currency headwinds, as anticipated in its 2013 results announcement.
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MARKETS
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UK stock indices are higher across the board, with the FTSE 100 up to a to a six-week high.
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FTSE 100: up 0.6% at 6717.40
FTSE 250: up 0.5% at 16063.67
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 827.18
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The euro is slightly up against the dollar following positive German business data.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6795
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3826

GOLD: down at USD1283.51 per ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD109.22 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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UK retailers expect sales to expand at a faster pace next month, the latest monthly survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed. According to Distributive Trades survey, retailers report sales growth for the fifth consecutive month in April. A balance of 30% reported higher sales in April, which was a significant improvement from 13% seen in March and above the 17% forecast by economists.
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British car production posted a double-digit growth in March, underpinned by robust demand from Europe, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said. Car manufacturing advanced 12% in March from last year to more than 142,000 units. Production for exports climbed by around 10%, the society said.
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Confidence among German firms improved unexpectedly in April, reports said citing Ifo survey. Business confidence rose to 111.2 in April from 110.7 in March, while it was forecast to fall to 110.4. The current conditions index, at the same time, improved less than expected to 115.3 from 115.2 in March. The expected score was 115.6. Expectations among businesses strengthened unexpectedly to 107.3 from 106.4. Economists had forecast the index to fall moderately to 105.8.
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Clashes broke out between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, as Russia called for new talks on solving the crisis. Up to five pro-Russian militants were killed during a raid in the eastern town of Sloviansk, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Thursday. One government soldier was injured during the operation to disband three checkpoints, the ministry said. Earlier, pro-Russian militia said that at least one man was killed and another severely wounded when gunmen attacked a checkpoint outside the town.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to convene his security cabinet on Thursday to discuss Israel's response to the decision by rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government. Hamas, the radical Islamist group ruling Gaza, does not recognize Israel's right to exist. The unity pact announced Wednesday comes as floundering US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of the West Bank's Fatah party, are set to expire on April 29.
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Visiting US President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were to hold a summit meeting Thursday, when they were expected to discuss regional issues, including North Korea's nuclear threat and China's military buildup. Obama, one of whose strategic initiatives is much-heralded "pivot to Asia," and Abe will reaffirm that the two countries will play a "leading role" in ensuring peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region in a joint statement to be issued after the meeting, Japanese media reported.
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The death toll in the South Korean ferry sinking reached 159 early Thursday, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Another 143 people were still unaccounted for, the report said. One hundred and seventy-four people of the 476 on board when the ferry sank on April 16 survived.
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