BHP Billiton PLC Share News (BLT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened mixed on Thursday, with heavyweight oil majors and a stronger pound hampering the FTSE 100, ahead of the Bank of England's interest rate decion at midday. The FTSE 100 was down 0.2%, or 15.85 points, at 7,112.25. The FTSE 250 was up 0.8%, gaining 146.84 points to 19,064.52, while the AIM All-Share was up 0.7% at 982.19.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.4% at 12,055.74, while the Cboe UK 250 was 0.5% higher at 17,189.76. The Cboe UK Small Companies was down 0.1% at 11,500.18.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.4% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was flat. On the London Stock Exchange, Smith & Nephew was the best blue-chip performer at the open, up 6.8% after the medical devices maker reaffirmed its annual guidance and said revenue increased in the third quarter of the year.For the three months to September 29, the company posted revenue of USD1.17 billion, up from USD1.15 billion the year before.Sports Medicine, Trauma & Other proved Smith & Nephew's leading franchise, with revenue reaching USD476 million from USD462 million. The Reconstruction unit also performed well in the quarter, recording USD374 million in revenue versus USD368 million the year before.For 2018, the company expects underlying revenue growth be in the lower half of the 2% to 3% range and trading profit margin to exceed that of 2017 due to a favourable legal settlement and cost controls. BT Group was up 6.7% after the telecommunications firm said profit rose on lower costs despite falling revenue, while shares also were benefiting from a broker upgrade.For the six month ended September, pretax profit rose 24% to GBP1.34 billion from GBP1.08 billion the year prior. Revenue fell 1.7% to GBP11.59 billion from GBP11.79 billion the year before.Profit performance was boosted by a reduction in operating costs. These fell to GBP9.90 billion from GBP10.33 billion the year before.Revenue performance, however, continued to be hurt by a further 7.1% decline in BT's global services business to GBP2.33 billion in the first six months from GBP2.51 billion the year prior. This, alongside a fall in revenue due to price changes for the Openreach fixed-line network, counteracted 2.7% growth at the BT Consumer business to GBP5.27 billion from GBP5.13 billion the year prior. In addition, JPMorgan upgraded BT to Overweight from Neutral. BHP Billiton was up 1.9% after the Anglo-Australian miner confirmed it will return its US shale proceeds via both a special dividend and a buyback. In July, BHP sold its US shale assets for USD10.8 billion to oil major BP and Merit Energy, with BP taking the vast majority. The deal completed on Wednesday. BHP will start straight away with a buyback worth USD5.2 billion, and, once this is done, will return an expected USD5.2 billion in a special dividend to be paid in January.Just Eat was up 1.7% after the online takeaway platform said it saw a strong third-quarter performance and is on track to meet full year expectations. For the third quarter to the end of September, revenue surged 41% to GBP195.3 million driven by strong marketplace order growth and its HungryHouse acquisition. Total orders at group level were up 27% to 54.7 million with more than 57% of orders being placed on its mobile app. Just Eat said it now expects annual revenue to be towards the top end of the GBP740 million to GBP770 million guided range.At the other end of the large cap index, Royal Dutch Shell 'B' shares were down 1.8% and Shell 'A' was down 1.6% despite the oil major saying it had enjoyed one of its best ever quarters, with earnings soaring on higher oil prices.For the three months to September, Shell's current cost of supplies earnings excluding items rose 38% to USD5.79 billion.CCS earnings attributable to shareholders was up 51% to USD5.57 billion. In addition, the figure excluding exceptional items climbed 37% to USD5.62 billion - although this was shy of analyst consensus of USD5.70 billion."The trouble with a high bar is that sometimes you can miss it, and this is what has happened again this quarter, coming in short of expectations of USD5.7 billion. This may help explain why the shares have underperformed this year, up around 2%, compared to an oil price that is higher by 10%," noted CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.Peer BP, which reported strong third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, was down 2.2%, having closed up 3.9% on Tuesday.

Brent oil was quoted USD74.36 a barrel early Thursday, down from USD76.02 late Wednesday.Shire was down 1.6% ahead of the Irish drugmaker's third-quarter earnings release at midday. Sterling was higher, quoted at USD1.2907 against USD1.2757 at the London equities close on Wednesday, ahead of the Bank of England's interest rate decision at midday. The pound rose after the Times reported that the UK and the EU clinched a tentative deal that would grant UK financial services firms continued access to European markets after Brexit. The deal would permit access for British financial services to European markets as far as British financial regulation remained broadly aligned with the EU's, the newspaper said."The financial services deal means that the EU will accept that the UK has equivalent regulations to Brussels, allowing UK financial service firms to operate as they do now, in the case of a no deal Brexit. Given the importance of the UK Financial Services sector, this is the news that investors and firms have been waiting for," said London Capital's Jasper Lawler. Meanwhile, the Bank of England will announce its latest monetary policy decision, alongside the release of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting minutes and quarterly Inflation Report, at midday on Thursday, on what has come to be known as 'Super Thursday'.This will be followed by a press conference with BoE Governor Mark Carney at 1230 GMT.With a Brexit withdrawal deal still not agreed, the Bank of England is expected to remain cautious, with the next UK interest rate hike still not seen until the second quarter of 2019.The economic events calendar on Thursday has UK manufacturing PMI at 0930 GMT and US manufacturing PMI at 1345 GMT.In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.0%, S&P 500 up 1.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 2.0%.In the US earnings calendar broadcaster CBS, tomato ketchup maker Kraft Heinz, coffee house chain Starbucks and iPhone maker Apple will report earnings after the closing bell in New York on Thursday.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended up 1.6%.China's manufacturing sector expanded only slightly in October as output remained broadly unchanged amid marginal increase in new business, survey data from IHS Markit showed Thursday.The Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 50.1 in October versus 50.0 in September. The reading was expected to remain unchanged at neutral level of 50.0. A score above 50 indicates expansion. Prior to September, the health of the sector had improved for 15 consecutive months.