BLV.L Share News (BLV)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Burberry Group Wednesday said that demand for its luxury outerwear, leather goods and menswear continued unabated in Asia, driving another increase in its annual profit.

The company said it will increase investments by GBP200 million, pumping the extra money mainly into its retail division, the Japanese market, and its beauty division.

UK equity markets are mixed Wednesday, driven by corporate announcements and a number of stocks going ex-dividend.

US stocks are set to open slightly higher Wednesday, having closed firmly in the red on Tuesday, as investors take their positions ahead of the release of minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting and a host of speeches from members of the Federal Reserve.

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FTSE 100: down 0.2% at 6,791.10
FTSE 250: up 0.5% at 15,514.80
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 792.10
GBP-USD: up at 1.6898
EUR-USD: down at 1.3678
GOLD: down at USD1,289.76 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD109.99 a barrel

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Top UK Corporate News
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Burberry Group reported higher pretax profit and revenue for its last financial year, as outerwear, large leather goods, menswear, and demand in Asia continue to drive sales. The luxury retailer also said it has appointed easyJet PLC Chief Executive Carolyn McCall to its board as a non-executive director. Burberry said that in the year ahead it will increase investment, pumping around GBP200 million in capital expenditure focusing on its retail division, the Japanese market, and its beauty division, which the company brought back in-house last year. The demand for Burberry's goods has been driven by much of the same factors of late; travelling "luxury customers", particularly from Asia, buying the retailer's outerwear and leather goods, like its iconic trench coats and check-print patterned goods.
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SSE reported a slight increase in pretax profit for the full year, capped by a one-off charge of GBP742.2 million coupled with a fall in profit for its retail business. The energy supplier posted pretax profit of GBP575.3 million for the year ended March 31, up from GBP571.3 million a year earlier, as operating profit rose 9.3% in its networks unit and 25% in its wholesale business. Its retail arm recorded a 29% fall in operating profit, reflecting lower use of energy by customers and higher costs including the cost of gas for Energy Supply. The company took a one-off charge of GBP747.2 million, resulted from scaling back of offshore wind projects and the planned disposals of what it called "non-core" businesses like street lighting contracts.
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Great Portland Estates reported an increase in profit and revenue for the full year, driven largely by valuation gains. The central London property development company posted pretax profit of GBP422.2 million for the year ended March 31, up from GBP180.6 million a year earlier, boosted by valuation gains of GBP306.9 million, compared with GBP97.4 million a year earlier. At the period-end the company's portfolio was valued at GBP2.04 billion up from GBP1.86 billion a year earlier. The company said there were a number of key drivers behind this valuation movement including rental value growth. It said rental values grew 8.2% during the period, consisting of 7.2% and 12% increases for office and retail rental values, respectively.
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Shares in Britvic were one of the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250, after the soft drinks maker said it delivered strong revenue, profit and margin growth in the first half of the year, supported by volume increases, higher prices and increased market share. The British maker of Robinsons cordial and Tango and Fruit Shoot soft drinks raised its interim dividend by 13% to 6.1 pence per share, highlighting a confident outlook for the year ahead, the company said. "Whilst we anticipate that the consumer environment is likely to remain challenging across our core markets, we remain confident of delivering [earnings before interest and taxes] in the range of GBP148 million to GBP156 million for the full year," said Chief Executive Simon Litherland in a statement. In the full 2013 financial year, Britvic recorded EBIT of GBP135 million.
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DCC declared a 10% increase in its annual dividend, as it reported strong gains in both revenue and profit in its recent financial year, driven by acquisitions and by strong organic growth in its technology and healthcare divisions. The FTSE 250 sales and support-services group lifted its full-year dividend to 76.85 pence per share, from 69.86p the year before, which it said makes for the 20th consecutive year of dividend growth as a listed company. Revenue for the full year ended March 31 rose 6.2% to GBP11.23 billion from GBP10.57 billion the year before, helping boost pretax profit by 16% to GBP123.9 million from 106.6 million.
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Antofagasta said that it remains on track to meet the 2014 production guidance of 700,000 tonnes of copper it issued in January. In a statement released ahead of the Chile-based copper miner's annual general meeting, Chairman Jean-Paul Luksic said that the company continues to work on reducing costs and further on enhancing the longer-term prospects of the business. Antofagasta said 2013 was a challenging year for the the company and mining sector as a whole, with the Chile-focused company facing pricing challenges from a more vulnerable market as a result of lower demand growth and weaker confidence in China as well as new mine supply coming on-stream, as a consequence of investment decisions made several years ago when the sector was still growing strongly.
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FirstGroup said it swung to a pretax profit in its last financial year, as higher UK rail and bus profits more than offset a weather-related hit on profits in its First Student and Greyhound businesses in its final quarter. In the year to March 31, 2014, pretax profit was GBP58.5 million, up from a GBP28.9 million loss the previous year. However, it refrained from reintroducing a dividend payment, saying it wanted to keep the cash as it continues its turnaround and capital programme.
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Telecom Plus saw its shares jump to the top of the FTSE 250 in early trading after the multi-utility provider said higher customer numbers helped drive a rise in revenue and pretax profit its last financial year and it remains comfortable with market expectations for a near 50% increase in adjusted pretax profit this year. Revenue rose 9.5% to GBP658.8 million in the year to end-March, from GBP601.5 million the previous year. The company, which trades under the Utility Warehouse brand, raised its dividend for the full-year to 35 pence per share, from the 31 pence it paid for fiscal 2013.
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Lloyds Banking Group, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, has clamped down on high-risk loans in London amid mounting fears that households in the southeast are overstretching their finances as they chase a rapidly accelerating housing market, the Financial Times reports. The bank has decided that where a borrower is seeking a loan of more than GBP500,000, it will apply a limit of no more than four times income. The move is designed to address “specific inflationary pressures in the London housing market”, The FT quotes Lloyds as saying.
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Royal Mail Group said it will pilot a Sunday afternoon parcel collection service from its busiest delivery offices this summer, a move that comes in the wake of its recent deal with unions that got agreement that staff would be more flexible in their working practices. In a statement, the company said the pilot would be run at about 100 of its delivery offices with the highest parcel volumes, meaning they're open for collection seven days a week. It will also trial a parcel delivery service in London, within the M25 motorway. It said the move would make it easier for online shoppers who work during the week to be able to collect their parcels.
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AIM MOVERS
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Tower Resources is doing well despite saying that there has been a delay in its drilling schedule in Namibia, and that it doesn't expect drilling operations to restart until the end of May. The firm said that the delay will not have a material financial consequence. Belvoir Lettings is up after it said trading in the year to date has been positive, and its acquisition programme remains promising. It also said that newly-appointed chief executive Carl Chadwick has stepped down from the role and has left the firm to focus on other business interests. Chairman Mike Goddard will resume the role of chief executive, supported by Dorian Gonsalves, who will continue his full-time operational responsibilities, overseeing the day-to-day running of the business. Optimal Payments is another gainer after it said that both revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation are now forecast to be "materially ahead of market expectations" in its full-year on the back of strong trading in the year to date. DekelOil is down even though it said it had secured a second contract to supply crude palm oil from its extraction mill in the Ivory Coast and had already started supplying oil to its new customer, meaning it has now secured buyers for its entire 2014 production.
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Top Economics And General
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Bank of England policy makers unanimously decided to maintain monetary policy, but their views on the appropriate path of monetary policy varied, the minutes of their most recent meeting showed. All nine members voted to maintain the key interest rate at 0.50% and quantitative easing at GBP375 billion. They also agreed that, in the absence of other inflationary pressures, it would be necessary to see more evidence of slack reducing before an increase in interest rate would be warranted. "The committee would continue to refine its views as the economy evolved, and for some members the monetary policy decision was becoming more balanced," it said.
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UK households remained upbeat regarding their future financial outlook, owing to a heightened sense of job security and expectations of slowing inflation, results of a survey by Markit Economics and Ipsos MORI showed. The Markit household finance index, measuring the financial well being perceptions, came in at 42.4. Though the index was below the neutral-mark of 50.0, it is the second highest reading following the survey-record high of 43.0 logged in April. The latest score signaled the second-weakest squeeze on household finances since the survey began in February 2009, the report said.
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UK retail sales increased at the strongest annual pace since May 2004, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Retail sales volume including automotive fuel advanced 6.9% year-on-year in April, faster than the 4.8% rise seen in March. This was the highest annual growth in the quantity bought since May 2004 and exceeded the 5.1% rise forecast by economists. Excluding automotive fuel, retail sales climbed at a pace of 7.7% after rising 4.9% in March. That was also above the 5.4% expected increase. Month-on-month, overall retail sales volume growth improved to 1.3% in April from 0.5% in March. Similarly, growth in sales excluding automotive fuel accelerated to 1.8% from 0.1%.
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The Bank of Japan left its monetary policy unchanged and raised its assessment of capital expenditure, as the economy is expected to withstand the impact of sales tax hike. The policy board of the central bank decided to persists with its policy of increasing the monetary base at an annual pace of about JPY60 trillion to JPY70 trillion.
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China's economy added 4.73 million jobs in the first four months of 2014, which was higher by 30,000 from the same period of last year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) said. The service sector has created more jobs despite slowing economic growth. Xin Changxing, vice minister of the MHRSS said the government is confident of achieving job target this year. Premier Li Keqiang set the job target first and then calculated GDP target for 2014. China aims to achieve about 7.5% economic growth.
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As Russia vows to veto an upcoming UN Security Council resolution to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, calls from the wider UN membership intensify to end the council's three-year gridlock on the brutal conflict. The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a resolution Thursday to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, and with Russia vowing to veto it, several UN member states are again calling for meaningful action by the council.
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At least 118 people were killed in a twin bombing at a crowded market in the Plateau State capital Jos in central Nigeria, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said early Wednesday. And at least an additional 45 people were injured, according to Plateau State police commissioner Chris Olakpe.
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A Cairo court handed down a three-year jail sentence for former president Hosny Mubarak on charges of fraudulently spending millions of dollars on his private residences. The ousted leader's sons Gamal and Alaa both received four-year sentences in the case, in which the three were accused of embezzling more than 100 million Egyptian pounds (USD14 million) of public money. They were also jointly fined 125 million pounds (USD17.5 million).
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
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15:00 EU Consumer Confidence Preliminary
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change
16:00 US Fed's Yellen Speech
17:50 US Fed's George Speech
18:30 US Fed Minneapolis's Narayana Kocherlakota speech
19:00 US FOMC Minutes
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Thursday's Key UK Corporate Events
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Halfords Group Full Year Results
QinetiQ Group Full Year Results
Royal Mail Group Full Year Results
Mitchells and Butler Half Year Results
Max Property Group Full Year Results
Dairy Crest Group Full Year Results
Vtech Holdings Full Year Results
Amlin Interim Management Statement
Hogg Robinson Group Full Year Results
Daily Mail and General Trust Half Year Results
Electrocomponents Full Year Results
Investec Full Year Results
Mothercare Full Year Results
SABMiller Full Year Results
United Utilities Full Year Results
Young & Co's Brewery Full Year Results
Arrow Global Q1 Results
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Thursday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
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All Day European Parliament election
02:45 China HSBC Manufacturing PMI Preliminary
06:00 Japan BoJ Monthly Economic Survey
07:45 France Business Climate
08:00 France Markit Manufacturing PMI
08:00 France Markit Services PMI
08:30 Germany Markit Manufacturing PMI
08:30 Germany Markit Services PMI
09:00 EU Markit Manufacturing PMI
09:00 EU Markit Services PMI
09:30 UK BBA Mortgage Approvals
09:30 UK Gross Domestic Product
09:30 UK Public Sector Net Borrowing
11:00 UK CBI Industrial Trends Survey
13:30 US Chicago Fed National Activity Index
13:30 US Initial Jobless Claims
14:45 US Markit Manufacturing PMI P
15:00 US Existing Home Sales
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage change
16:00 US Kansas Fed manufacturing activity
20:00 US American Petroleum Institute Monthly Report
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