BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Tuesday.
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COMPANIES
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BP PLC said it disagreed with the decision by a US court of appeals, which denied the company's request for a permanent injunction preventing certain payments in compensation for the Deep Sea Horizon oil spill. The major oil and gas company said it continues to believe some of the business economic-loss claimants are not proper class members under the terms of the settlement, and it is considering its options for appeal. The company was told on Monday by a federal appeals court that it must abide by terms of a USD9.2 billion settlement with business-loss claimants of the oil spill, and the court rejected claims that the administrator is misinterpreting the financial ramifications of the spill.
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Glencore Xstrata PLC reported an unexpected increase in full-year 2013 revenues, beating market expectations and leading to a rise in net profit before significant items during the period. The major mining and commodities trading company said its net profit before significant items, related to its merger with Xstrata in May, increased 20% to USD3.67 billion from USD3.06 billion the previous year. Glencore said its revenues increased as strong production figures and successful integration of Xstrata offset lower commodity prices during 2013.
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Fresnillo PLC said its pretax profit fell 65% during its full year 2013 as explosion permit problems, lower metal prices, and revaluation of the company's Silverstream asset hit finances. The precious metals miner, said its pretax profit fell to USD418.7 million from USD1.18 billion the previous year, as revenues fell 25% to USD1.62 billion from USD2.16 billion in 2012. The company said its results were impacted primarily by a combination of lower precious metals prices, lower gold production - which arose from a dispute with the local community about explosives permits at its Minera Penmont operations - and a non-cash loss generated by its Silverstream asset revaluation.
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Ashtead Group PLC shares jumped to lead the FTSE 100 after the firm reported a record pretax profit rise of over 50% as its programme of organic growth and acquisitions continued to pay off. The British industrial equipment hire company said pretax profit rose 54% to GBP80.4 million from GBP53.5 million last year for the three months to January 31, 2014. Buoyed by the record results, the firm said it now anticipates a full-year profit ahead of previous expectations.
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Meggitt PLC said pretax profit for the full-year declined by 4% as the group hiked its dividend to demonstrate its continuing confidence in the company's prospects. The engineering group said pretax profit for the full-year fell to GBP269.4 million from the GBP281.3 million reported last year.
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Asia-focused lender Standard Chartered PLC is nearing deals to sell about a half-dozen units in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, reported the Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the deals. The bank is in advanced talks to sell Standard Chartered Savings Bank and Standard Chartered Capital in South Korea, the Journal said. The report has not disclosed the details of the buyers.
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Serco Group PLC reported a sharp drop in 2013 pretax profit due to its well-publicised issues with certain UK government contracts and the reputational damage that inflicted, and it said its outlook for 2014 remains challenging too, particularly due to issues with an Australian immigration contract. Serco said it faces above-average contract attrition, a reduced volume of work in its Australian immigration contract, and lower-than-expected growth from new contracts in 2014, and it is continuing to predict a mid-single digit organic revenue decline and a 50 to 100 basis point drop in its adjusted operating margin. The sharp drop in the company's 2013 performance had been well flagged after it was banned from winning new UK government work in the wake of issues with two contracts.
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Tullett Prebon PLC said it swung to a 2013 pretax profit, but its underlying performance was weaker because subdued financial markets and new regulatory changes caused uncertainty for its customers. The interdealer broker reported a fall in pretax profit to GBP99.6 million from GBP111.3 million. The company has been struggling with a number of regulatory changes and a sustained period of low volatility in financial markets.
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Regus PLC said full-year revenue grew 23% as the firm reports a record year of achievement, boosted by a 30% increase in the size of its global network. The serviced office accomodation provider said revenue for the year to December 31, 2013 jumped 23.3% to GBP1.53 billion from the GBP1.24 billion reported in 2012. Pretax profit saw a slight decline, down 4% to GBP81.5 million from GBP85.1 million.
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Rotork PLC shares jumped after the firm reported a 13% rise in revenue for the year, boosted by record order intake across its divisions and a spate of acquisitions. In its full-year results for 2013, the firm said revenue rose 13% to GBP578.4 million, up on the GBP511.7 million reported last year, driven by four acquisitions the firm made during the year, said Rotork. Pretax profit came in at GBP138.0 million, up 11.1% from GBP124.2 million in 2012.
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MARKETS
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UK indices are higher after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to stand down.
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FTSE 100: up 1.4% at 6801.85
FTSE 250: up 1.5% at 16620.92
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.3% at 885.21
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The euro is up against the dollar despite a drop in producer prices. The pound is stable against the dollar following disappointing UK construction data.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6693
EUR-USD: up at USD1.3765

GOLD: down at USD1337.10 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD109.42 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The British construction sector expanded notably in February, but the pace of expansion eased since January as adverse weather conditions disrupted activity, survey data from Markit Economics showed Tuesday. The construction Purchasing Managers' Index fell less than expected to 62.6 in February from a 77-month high of 64.6 in January. The score was forecast to drop to 63.5. The index has posted above the 50.0 no-change level in each month since May 2013.
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Eurozone producer prices declined more than expected in January due to a fall in energy prices, official data revealed. Producer prices were down 0.3% from December, Eurostat said. The decline reversed 0.2% rise posted in December and exceeded the 0.1% fall forecast by economists.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin says he sees no need to send Russian troops to Ukraine now, calling it a "last resort." "What could trigger the possible use of force? It's only in an extreme case." He also says that military exercises that began last week were planned for a long time and had finished "and yesterday I ordered all troops to return to military bases."
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The EU and US threatened Monday to impose sanctions against Russia unless Moscow withdraws its armed forces from Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and takes steps to reduce tensions. The EU threatened to suspend visa liberalization talks with Russia, and US President Barack Obama spoke of a series of diplomatic and economic steps that will "isolate Russia and have a negative impact on the Russian economy" and its status in the world if Moscow continues on the current path. Russia is "on the wrong side of history" in Ukraine, Obama said, urging Moscow to choose diplomacy over force.
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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said tension in Ukraine will have limited impact on the euro area. "However, the geopolitical dimensions of this situation are indeed completely different from what we have seen" in the last bouts of spillovers from emerging markets, he told European parliament late Monday. The ECB will closely monitor the developments, he added. In the euro area, inflation outlook was seen to be broadly in line with price stability. Inflation was projected to increase toward levels close to 2%, Draghi said.
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Japan's monetary base climbed 55.7% on year in February, the Bank of Japan said, coming in at 201.322 trillion yen. That follows the 51.9% spike in January.
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North Korea's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles from the country's south-east coast was a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the US State Department said Monday. North Korea launched the two Scud missiles at 6:19 am Monday (2119 GMT Sunday), the South Korean Defence Ministry said earlier in Seoul. In confirming the launch, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the missiles flew in a north-easterly direction and landed in the sea. The missiles have a presumed range of more than 500 kilometres.
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US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday to discuss Middle East peace talks and Iran's nuclear situation. After setting a tense stage with an exchange of barbs over the weekend, the two leaders sat together in the Oval Office in a meeting that Obama called "a testimony to the incredible bonds" between the two countries. Obama vowed that he would affirm to Netanyahu his "absolute commitment that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon."
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A US district court opened the trial Monday of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, who is accused of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding members of terrorist network al-Qaeda. Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a former spokesman for al-Qaeda, is the terrorist network's highest-ranking member to be tried on US soil since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
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Increased economic integration in East and South-East Asia is expected to lead to a rise in regional trade in heroin and methamphetamines, the United Nations said. "Rapid regional integration provides ample incentives for international drug trafficking syndicates," said Jeremy Douglas, regional representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida welcomed informal talks held between Japan and North Korea in the hope of restarting negotiations on Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese nationals. "It was meaningful to some extent that the two governments exchanged opinions for the first time in 16 months," Kishida told reporters. Diplomats from the two countries met on Monday in the Chinese city of Shenyang, on the sidelines of a meeting between their respective Red Cross officials.
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