BIFF.L Share News (BIFF)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened in the green Wednesday morning following sharp rises in New York, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the US central bank could lower interest rates. The FTSE 100 index was up 15.10 points, or 0.2% at 7,229.39 early Wednesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 74.15 points, or 0.4%, at 19,082.31. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.3% at 944.44.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.1% at 12,252.91. The Cboe 250 was up 0.5% at 17,132.51 and the Cboe Small Companies up 0.1% at 11,750.23."US markets were given an extra boost from Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chief, who said he is 'monitoring' the trade situation, and that the US central bank is willing to act in an 'appropriate' way in order to help the economy grow. The comments were viewed as a sign the Fed were willing to lower interest rates should it be required, and that acted as a green light to the buyers. Dealers were happy to hear the Fed are flexible, and that removed some of the recent negative sentiment. Richard Clarida, the vice-chair of the Fed, said the US economy is in a 'good place' and it's the Fed's job to ensure it stays 'there'," CMC analyst David Madden said.The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 2.1%, the S&P 500 up 2.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 2.7%.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2696 early Wednesday, slightly higher than USD1.2675 at the London equities close on Tuesday.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was flat in early trading. The euro was quoted at USD1.1266 early, higher from USD1.1240 at the European equities close yesterday.London Capital's Jasper Lawler said: "The euro is capitalising on the weaker dollar, pushing back up even after data showed inflation to be lacklustre and slipping further away from the ECB's target of 2%. Today euro traders will look towards retail sales data, which are expected to have declined in April."In early trade in London, Carnival was among the FTSE 100 risers, gaining 2.6%, as the cruise line agreed to pay a penalty of USD20 million after admitting its subsidiary Princess Cruises violated terms of a 2017 settlement for waste disposal. Senior US District Judge Patricia Seitz approved the settlement agreement after Carnival Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald admitted the company's responsibility for probation violations from the previous environmental case."The company pleads guilty," Arnold said in courtroom. "We acknowledge the shortcomings. I am here today to formulate a plan to fix them."Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown continued to slip after finishing at the bottom of the blue-chip index on Tuesday.Hargreaves Lansdown was down 4.6% Wednesday morning, comfortably the worst performer. Shares in the fund supermarket fell after star fund manager Neil Woodford suspended withdrawals from its flagship equity fund on Monday, which had been a constituent of Hargreaves' favourite fund investment list.Hargreaves on Monday removed LF Woodford Equity Income Fund and Woodford Income Focus Fund from its Wealth 50 list. On Monday, Woodford suspended withdrawals from his equity income fund as the fund's underperformance resulted in significant outflow of investors. The decision is suspected to have been made after Kent County Council sought to redeem its GBP263 million investment in the equity fund.On Tuesday, Woodford appeared in a video suggesting his firm faced having to hold a fire sale in order to meet the demand for redemptions from his flagship Woodford Equity Income Fund, which was reported to have hit GBP10 million a day. The equity fund is managed by Woodford Investment Management, which also manages London-listed Woodford Patient Capital Trust. Trading in Woodford Patient Capital Trust remains unaffected by the suspension.Woodford Patient Capital Trust was down 2.9% Wednesday morning, the FTSE 250's worst performer, losing 2.9%.Provident Financial was sitting atop the mid-cap index, gaining 8.6% after its acrimonious takeover battle with Non-Standard Finance came to an end.Non-Standard Finance's hostile GBP1.1 billion takeover of its larger home-credit lender collapsed after the UK financial regulator blocked the deal.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". Non-Standard Finance's shares were unchanged at 74.0 pence.Provident said it "greatly regrets the unnecessary distraction, cost and impact of the uncertainty" caused by the bid.Card Factory was up 2.6% after giving a positive trading update. The firm 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. Engineering firm IMI was up 3.2%. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral.Elsewhere in London, Biffa was up 2.6% after the waste management company reported a "strong" financial 2019. Biffa reported a decrease in pretax profit in the twelve months to March 29 of GBP21.5 million compared to GBP38.3 million the year before but saw its underlying profit rise 7.4% to GBP64.0 million. The company's revenue increased 3.3% to GBP1.09 billion. Biffa hiked its dividend to 7.20p from 6.7p the year before."'I am pleased to report another year of strong performance by Biffa. We have delivered a good set of financial results for the year while making further strides in the delivery of our strategy," said Biffa Chief Executive Michael Topham. In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 1.8%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed marginally down, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.3%."The rally in New York prompted buying in Asia overnight even though the Chinese services sector cooled a little. The Caixin survey of Chinese services in May undershot the forecast, and cooled from April reading," commented CMC's Madden.China registered a "modest" expansion in business during May, Caixin showed, but growth has eased.The Chinese Services Business Activity Index fell to 52.7 in May, a three-month low, from 54.5 in April. A figure over 50 means expansion. This shows that services sector activity did expand in May, but the rate eased somewhat from April.The slower growth in the services sector pushed down the composite output index for May to 51.5 from 52.7 in April, also a three-month low."The reading was consistent with a strong rise in output overall amid reports of firm client demand. At the same time, manufacturing output was broadly stable, following a three-month sequence of expansion," Caixin said.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 the Eurozone producer price index at 1000 BST and a US Markit PMI reading at 1445 BST.