BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London opened higher on Tuesday with BP and Ocado bookending the FTSE 100 after contrasting annual results, while the pound was lower ahead of UK services PMI data. The FTSE 100 index was up 37.15 points, or 0.5%, at 7,071.29 in early trade. The FTSE 250 was 60.15 points higher, or 0.3%, at 18,908.96. The AIM All-Share was up 0.1% at 923.52.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.6% at 12,008.96, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.3% at 16,883.87. The Cboe UK Small Companies also was up 0.1%, at 11,243.85.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both up 0.1%.On the London Stock Exchange, BP was the best blue chip performer, up 4.0% after the oil major said earnings for 2018 came in comfortably ahead of consensus, more than doubling on the prior year, with Upstream in particular doing well. For 2018, BP's underlying replacement cost profit, the oil major's preferred metric, came in at USD12.72 billion, up from USD6.17 billion in 2017. Market consensus had seen a figure of USD11.88 billion.Fourth quarter underlying RC profit was USD3.48 billion, up from USD2.11 billion the same period a year before. Expectations had been for underlying RC profit of USD2.63 billion. BP increased its fourth quarterly dividend by 2.5% on the year to 10.25 US cents. It bought back USD355 million of shares in 2018, and plans to keep buybacks going, and to "fully offset the impact of scrip dilution" by the end of 2019. Peer Royal Dutch Shell's 'A' and 'B' shares were up 1.2% and 1.0% respectively. At the other end of the large cap index Ocado was the worst performer, down 2.0%, after the online grocer reported a widened annual loss hampered by higher operating costs in a year of major expansion. For the financial year to December 2, Ocado's pretax loss came in at GBP44.4 million, widened from GBP8.3 million a year prior. Financial 2017 results were restated after the adoption of new accounting rule IFRS15, and last year the grocer had reported a GBP1.0 million profit.The pretax loss was significantly wider than analysts expectations, which had forecast Ocado's loss at GBP30.0 million.Looking ahead, Ocado said it would continue to target further deals for its smart platform, which would generate additional cash fees but will have a detrimental effect on short term profit.In the FTSE 250, Greencore was the best performer, up 6.7% after Jefferies resumed coverage on the sandwich maker with a Buy rating. CYBG was up 3.8% after Deutsche Bank restarted coverage on the lender with a Hold rating. At the other end of the large cap index, Indivior was the worst performer, down 17% after a court in the US rejected the opioid addiction treatment company's motion for a rehearing of its case against Dr Reddy's Laboratories. Dr Reddy's has been developing a generic buprenorphine/naloxone treatment, based on Indivior's Suboxone, with Indivior trying to halt development in court.Indivior had appealed against the removal of an injunction against Dr Reddy's plans, but this has been rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.Indivior plans on filing an emergency motion with the court while an appeal in Delaware goes on, with Delaware having decided Dr Reddy's has not infringed Indivior's patent. The pound was marginally lower, quoted at USD1.3032 early Tuesday against USD1.3059 at the London equities close Monday, ahead of the UK services PMI reading at 0930 GMT."UK services PMI and Brexit headlines will occupy sterling markets today, while the Bank of England policy decision looms on Thursday. Markets are likely to become increasingly nervous if the standoff in EU-UK negotiations continues, as the March 29 deadline approaches," noted analysts at Lloyds. The services PMI reading is expected to come in at 51.0. Meanwhile, UK retail sales returned to growth in January as heavy discounting tempted cautious shoppers, the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor figures showed.Data covering the four weeks to January 26, showed sales up 2.2% from a year before, the highest annual growth since June and above both the 3-month and 12-month averages of 0.8% and 1.2% respectively.In December, total sales were flat compared to the prior year, marking the worst December performance since 2008.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both up 0.7% and Nasdaq Composite up 1.2%.US stocks ended higher for the fourth straight session after President Donald Trump told CBS trade talks with Beijing are "doing very well" and that he saw a "good chance" of reaching a deal with North Korea on denuclearisation.In the US earnings calendar on Tuesday, film and television companies Walt Disney Co and Twenty-First Century Fox will report earnings after the market close in New York. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%. Financial markets in China and Hong Kong were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Still to come in the economic calendar in Europe is services PMI readings from Italy, France, Germany, and eurozone at 0845 GMT, 0850 GMT, 0855 GMT, and 0900 GMT respectively.