BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London opened flat on Tuesday following disappointing PMI data from China, with Glencore, Whitbread and DS Smith weighing on the FTSE 100. The FTSE 100 was up just 4.18 points at 7,444.84. The FTSE 250 was down just 1.39 points at 19,909.81. The AIM All-Share was up 0.2% at 972.1.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.1% at 12,631.42. The Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 17,808.87, and the Cboe UK Small Companies was flat at 11,652.80.In European equities, the CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.1% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt down 0.3%. "It's been a fairly weak start for markets in Europe as investors absorb another set of disappointing economic numbers out of China, and a slowdown in ad sales growth for Google owner Alphabet, with the tech sector slipping sharply," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.5%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.3%. Financial markets in Japan remain closed for Golden Week.Manufacturing production in China rose slightly in April, improving for the second month in a row, the latest data from IHS Markit showed Tuesday.The April increase, however, slowed from the previous month. The headline seasonally adjusted Caixin Purchasing Managers Index decreased to 50.2 in April from 50.8 in March, missing the forecast of 51.0. "Although the rate of improvement was only slight, it nonetheless contrasted with the subdued trend seen at the turn of the year," said Markit.In the FTSE 100, Standard Chartered was up 4.0% after the emerging markets-focused lender launched a USD1 billion share buyback programme Tuesday after first quarter profit and return on equity improved as it focused on expanding customers numbers and services and legacy issues subsided.For the three months ended March, pretax profit rose 4.2% to USD1.24 billion from USD1.19 billion the year prior. This was despite operating income dipping 1.6% to USD3.81 billion from USD3.87 billion the year before.On a underlying basis, pretax profit widened 9.5% to USD1.38 billion from USD1.26 billion the year prior. Standard Chartered made the move to buy back up to USD1.00 billion worth of shares after the resolution of its legacy issues. the buy back will start "imminently" and is expected to reduce the CET1 ratio in the second quarter by around 35 basis points. BP was up 0.8% after the oil major said it performed well in the first quarter of 2019 in a period of market volatility.Replacement cost profit, BP's preferred metric, fell 12% to USD2.10 billion from USD2.39 billion the same period the year before and USD2.72 billion the previous quarter.On an underlying basis, BP's RC profit was USD2.36 billion, down 8.9% from USD2.59 billion a year ago and 32% from USD3.48 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.BP nevertheless increased its first-quarter dividend by 2.5% on the year before, paying out 10.25 US cents to shareholders. BP bought back USD50 million worth of shares in the quarter, with buybacks in 2019 to be second half weighted. At the other end of the large cap index, Glencore was the worst performer, down 2.5% after the miner cut its 2019 production guidance for a number of key commodities following a mixed set of first-quarter output figures.For the three months ended March, copper production fell 7.2% to 320,700 tonnes from 345,400 tonnes a year prior. Nickel production was down 10% to 27,100 tonnes from 30,100 tonnes a year before. Gold output fell 13% to 202,000 ounces from 231,000 ounces a year prior. Silver production dropped 8.4% to 7.6 million ounces from 8.3 million ounces. Ferrochrome production was down 1.7% to 402,000 tonnes from 409,000 tonnes. For all of 2019, Glencore cut its guidance for a number of commodities. The firm expects copper production of around 1.46 million tonnes, down 40,000 tonnes from previous forecasts due to "safety and smelter outages" as well as a "range of mine plan updates" at its operations. Whitbread was down 1.7% after the Premier Inn hotel chain owner reported a drop in pretax profit and warned of weakness in the UK hotel market.The company, which is concentrating its focus on the hotel sector following the sale of Costa Coffee to Cola Cola last year, said there was ongoing signs of market weakness across both business and leisure markets, specifically in the core UK region.For the financial year ended February 28, revenue came in at GBP2.05 billion, up 2.5% from a restated GBP2.00 billion in financial 2018. This was slightly lower than the company-compile revenue estimate of GBP2.08 billion.However, statutory pretax profit fell almost 40% to GBP259.8 million from GBP426.5 million the year before. The company attributed the fall to GBP178 million of non-underlying items, of which GBP108 million was in relation to disposal costs from the sale of Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola Co. DS Smith was down 2.1%. The packaging firm said its financial performance has continued in line with expectations. The company said it has continued to see growth in corrugated box volumes and in market share gains. In addition, all its regions have seen growth, with particular strength in the UK, Italy and Poland, partially offset by some volume weakness in certain export-led markets, including Germany. DS Smith added that group margins are expected to have progressed in the second half of the year. Rightmove was down 1.0% after Deutsche Bank cut the property portal to Hold from Buy. The economic events calendar on Tuesday has inflation readings from Italy and Germany at 1000 BST and 1300 BST respectively. There also are eurozone GDP and unemployment figures at 1000 BST.The pound was quoted at USD1.2945 early Tuesday, up from USD1.2921 at the London equities close Monday.UK consumer confidence remained stable in April despite weakening personal finances confidence and fewer major purchases being considered, data showed on Tuesday. Data from GfK showed the UK Consumer Confidence in April remained "stubbornly" at negative 13 for the third consecutive month.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended broadly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flat, S&P 500 up 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.2%. The Nasdaq and S&P reached new record closing highs of 8,161.85 and 2,943.03 respectively.Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported a first-quarter profit that trumped Wall Street estimates, though its shares lost 7% in extended hours trading in New York after revenue fell short of expectations. The tech giant reported first-quarter profit of USD6.66 billion, or USD9.50 per share, compared with profit of USD9.40 billion or USD13.33 per share last year. The company was hit with a USD1.7 billion fine from the European Commission in the quarter. Excluding the fine, net income for the quarter was USD8.34 billion or USD11.90 per share. Revenue for the quarter jumped 17% to USD36.34 billion from USD31.15 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of USD37.34 billion for the quarter.Still ahead in the US earnings calendar, iPhone maker Apple reports earnings after the market close in New York on Tuesday.