LONDON (Alliance News) - Share prices in London are called for a lower open on Wednesday, as stocks in the US finished lower overnight and equities in Asia also trade in the red."This rise in the US dollar and yields along with reports that North Korea had cancelled a meeting with South Korea over the continuation of military drills with the US that were due to resume today, appears to have prompted this reduction in risk appetite, along with concerns that next month's nuclear talks with the US in Singapore might also be cancelled in response to this 'intentional military provocation'," says CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson.In early UK company news on Wednesday, Marco Gobbetti reported a rise in profit but a dip in revenue at
Burberry in his first annual results as chief executive of the blue-chip firm.
Paddy Power Betfair confirmed it is in talks to combine its US business with FanDuel, and
Micro Focus expects to report better interim revenue than previously guided due to an "unusually large licence deal".IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of London large-caps to open 8.58 points lower at 7,714.40 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.2%, or 12.00 points at 7,722.98 on Tuesday.
Burberry made no change to its future guidance as it reported a slight dip in sales for its full-year, though a rise in profit.Revenue declined 1% both at reported rates and constant currency to GBP2.73 billion, with comparable retail stores sales up 3%, as adjusted operating profit rose 2% at reported rates to GBP467 million.Pretax profit came in at GBP412.6 for the year, up from GBP394.8 last year.The luxury fashion retailer raised its total dividend 6% to 41.3p from 38.9p last year.The company said there is no change to its guidance of "broadly stable revenue and operating profit margin" at constant currencies in 2019 and 2020. Burberry will initiate a GBP150 million share buyback in its recently-commenced financial year.In Retail, Mainland China delivered high single-digit percentage growth, slowing to mid-single digits in the second half due to strong comparatives. Hong Kong improved through the year, while Korea declined but showed improvement in the second half."In a year of transition, we are pleased with our performance as we began to execute our strategy. While the task of transforming Burberry is still before us, the first steps we implemented to re-energise our brand are showing promising early signs," said Chief Executive Gobbetti, who took over the role from Christopher Bailey last year."With Riccardo Tisci now on board and a strong leadership team in place, we are excited about the year ahead and remain fully focused on our strategy to deliver long-term sustainable value," Gobbetti added.
Micro Focus International said it expects to report better revenue than previous guidance for the six months to April 30.Revenue is expected to be better than guidance of minus 9% to minus 12% on a constant currency basis, though this includes an "unusually large licence deal" of approximately USD40 million, which closed earlier than expected. Excluding this deal, the group's underlying revenue was "towards the better end of the guidance range", the company said.Micro Focus reiterated its full-year guidance of a constant currency revenue decline between 6% to 9%, with an adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin of 37%.Paper and packaging firm
Mondi said underlying profit in the first quarter of 2018 was up 15% year-on-year at EUR295 million, and up 6% on the fourth quarter of last year.Higher average selling prices and profit improvement initiatives more than offset higher operating costs, the impact of maintenance shuts and negative currency effects, Mondi said. Like-for-like sales volumes were stable on the comparable prior period.As Mondi has previously stated, there was a "prolonged" shut-down at its Richards Bay mill in South Africa. The estimated cost of these shuts on 2018 figures is to be around EUR115.0 million, "slightly" above what it had previously expected, with the total to be approximately split between each half. "Our outlook for the business remains positive. We continue to experience a strong pricing environment in a number of our key product segments, supported by good demand growth, although we do continue to see inflationary cost pressures across the Group and currencies are currently a headwind," Mondi said.Bookmaker
Paddy Power Betfair, noting press reports, confirmed it is in discussions regarding a potential combination of its US business and FanDuel to create a combined entity to target the prospective US sports betting market. "Discussions are ongoing and there is no certainty as to whether agreement will be reached, or as to the terms or timing of any transaction," Paddy Power said.In the FTSE 250, transport operator
National Express said it has maintained the "strong momentum" seen at the end of 2017, with "positive results across all divisions".For the four months to April 30, group revenue was up 6.2% at constant currency, with North America up 9.0%, ALSA - which includes the company's Spanish, Moroccan and Swiss operations - was up 6.3% and UK up 1.4%. At reported rates, revenue was up 1.7%.National Express's UK coach business saw revenue up 2.3% in the period despite lapping a "very strong period in 2017". The unit enjoyed a particularly strong Easter, with revenue up 9% and passenger growth of 5%, year-on-year.
Cineworld said revenue, on a pro-forma basis, rose 10% between the start of the year and May 13. US revenue was up 10%, while the UK was up 9%.The London-listed cinema operator completed its reverse takeover of US-based Regal Entertainment in February this year.Group admissions increased by 1.1% on a pro-forma basis, largely driven by the success of films such as "Black Panther" and "Avengers: Infinity War" in the US.Cineworld said there are a number of films scheduled to come out in the first half of the year, including "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom", with the slate for the second half of the year also strong.
Mitchells & Butlers said like-for-like sales rose 1.6% in the 28 weeks to April 14, which was up 2.5% when adjusted for the impact of snow in the period. Revenue for the first half rose to GBP1.13 billion from GBP1.12 billion, as pretax profit fell to GBP69 million from GBP75 million."As previously advised the board is not declaring an interim dividend but will make an assessment of pay-out at the end of the year based on a full year of trading and development of the sector outlook," M&B said.Since the half-year trading has been strong, the pub operator said, aided by good weather, with like-for-like sales in the 32 weeks to May 12 up 1.4%. Peer
Marston's said like-for-like Taverns sales were up 2.9% in its half-year, though Destination & Premium like-for-likes fell 1.8%.Revenue for the 26 weeks to March 31 rose to GBP529.0 million, from GBP451.5 million last year, though the company swung to a pretax loss of GBP13.4 million from a GBP36.7 million profit. On and underlying basis, pretax profit rose to GBP36.3 million form GBP33.7 million.The company maintained its interim dividend of 2.7p."We are pleased to report another period of good growth in revenue and underlying profit before tax. Strong trading in Brewing and Taverns and Leased pubs offsets the adverse impact of poor weather on 'drive-to' pubs in our Destination estate, further validating the resilience of our model," said Chief Executive Ralph Findlay.Marston's added that it expects to deliver growth in both revenue and underlying pretax profit in 2018 despite the impact of weather on its first-half results.In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended firmly in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 0.8%, the S&P 500 down 0.7% and Nasdaq Composite closing 0.8% lower.North Korea on Wednesday threatened to abandon a landmark summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump if the US insisted that it completely abandon its nuclear weapons."If the US is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the (North Korea)-US summit," Kim Kye Gwan, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, said according to the Korea Central News Agency.Kim earlier Wednesday abruptly cancelled talks with Seoul and threatened to call off the Trump summit - set to take place on June 12 - due to the US-South Korean joint military exercises which began on Friday.The US and South Korea have insisted the drills are purely for defence purposes. But North Korea's leadership described them as a "military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean peninsula", KCNA reported.Wednesday's summit had been intended as a follow-up to the historic meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In last month, during which the leaders agreed to work toward a permanent peace treaty and the elimination of nuclear weapons on the peninsula.US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the department had "received no formal or even informal notification of anything" relating to the tests or the summit from North Korean officials. Seoul described North Korea's decision to cancel the talks as "regrettable".In Asia on Wednesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.4%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.2%.Released early Wednesday, a preliminary reading showed Japan's gross domestic product fell more than expected, down 0.2% on quarter in the first three months of 2018.This was shy of expectations for a flat reading following the downwardly revised 0.1% gain in the three months prior, originally seen at 0.4%. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, GDP was down 0.6% - again missing forecasts for a decline of 0.1%.The poor first quarter snapped a string of eight straight quarters of expansion for the Japanese economy, which had marked the longest such streak in more than three years.In more positive news, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed industrial production grew more than initially estimated in March.Industrial output grew 1.4% month-on-month in March, bigger than the 1.2% estimated initially. Likewise, growth in shipments was revised up to 1.2% from 1%. Meanwhile, inventories advanced 3.3%, slower than the previous estimate of 3.5%. On a yearly basis, industrial production grew 2.4% in March.In Wednesday's economic calendar, there is eurozone CPI due at 1000 BST. In the US, MBA mortgage applications are at 1200 BST with housing starts at 1330 BST and industrial production at 1415 BST.
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