BT Share News (BT.A)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London stocks got off to another upbeat start on Thursday, with an annual earnings beat from FTSE 100 heavyweight Royal Dutch Shell helping to lift the blue-chip index. Distiller Diageo also was among the risers after a strong set of interim results, while telecommunications firm BT Group and consumer goods giant Unilever trailed at the bottom of the UK's headline stock index.The FTSE 100 was up 48.84 points, or 0.7%, at 6,990.47 in early trade. The blue-chip index is currently around 2.5% higher since the week began.The FTSE 250 was 72.13 points higher, or 0.4%, at 18,900.10, and the AIM All-Share was flat at 911.86.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.8% at 11,870.96, while the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.6% at 16,897.87 but the Cboe UK Small Companies down 0.1% at 11,267.85.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were up 0.4% and down 0.8% respectively. Michael van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets, said Thursday's higher open comes after a "surprisingly dovish policy U-turn by the US central bank".Departing from the hawkish approach to rate hikes expressed by the US Federal Reserve over the majority of 2018, the central bank on Wednesday kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at its first meeting of 2019, vowing to be "patient" regarding future adjustments.The Fed did not indicate any future plans to raise interest rates, striking a cautious tone as it held the rate's target range at 2.25 to 2.50%.The accompanying statement included some notable changes from last month, including dropping a reference to the Fed's plan for further gradual rate increases.The US central bank also removed a sentence describing the risks to the economic outlook as "roughly balanced". This was a change of its previous messaging in 2018, and a sign of a more dovish approach to policy.The dollar was put under selling pressure by the statement. Early Thursday, the pound was quoted at USD1.3142, up from USD1.3070 late Wednesday. The euro was quoted at USD1.1504 early Thursday, up from USD1.1416 at the European close on Wednesday.The Fed's patient tone also helped to boost stocks in Asia overnight, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closing up 1.1%. In China, the Shanghai Composite ended up 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended up 1.1%. The dollar fell to JPY108.67 from JPY109.56 on Wednesday.In London early Thursday, Shell was among the best performers, with 'A' shares up 3.3% and 'B' shares up 3.5%.The oil major said current cost of supply (CCS) earnings excluding identified items attributable to shareholders, the firm's preferred metric, rose 36% to USD21.40 billion from USD15.76 billion in 2017. Analyst consensus had predicted CCS earnings of USD20.98 billion. Revenue for 2018 came in at USD388.38 billion, up 27% from USD305.18 billion last year."Shell delivered a very strong financial performance in 2018, with cash flow from operations of USD49.6 billion, excluding working capital movements," said Chief Executive Ben van Beurden.ThinkMarkets analyst Naeem Aslam commented: "The company used its cash flow very wisely and this resulted in working capital deployed in the right place and at the right time...The company has kept their top priority of keeping the cost low and this resulted in their fourth-quarter earnings as the highest period in nearly 6 years."Peer BP, which reports its own annual figures next week, was up 1.6% on a positive read-across. Diageo was the best performer, rising 3.6% as it reported growth in volumes, revenue and profit for its first half as it backed its guidance for the year.Volumes for the first half grew 4% organically to 130.5 million, as sales in the six months to the end of December rose to GBP10.36 billion from GBP9.93 billion a year ago.Pretax profit climbed to GBP2.63 billion from GBP2.20 billion. The firm raised its dividend by 5% to 26.1p from 24.9p a year ago."This half has benefited from some one-time and phasing gains in both organic net sales and operating profit, and therefore we continue to expect to deliver mid-single digit organic net sales growth for the year and to expand operating margins in line with our previous guidance of 175 bps for the three years ending 30 June 2019," said Chief Executive Ivan Menezes.BT Group was towards the bottom of the FTSE 100, down 3.2% after it reported a rise in nine-month profit though revenue dipped. For the nine months ended December, pretax profit grew 20% to GBP2.09 billion from GBP1.74 billion a year prior. Revenue fell 1.1% to GBP17.56 billion from GBP17.76 billion a year before."We have continued to deliver consistently against our strategic objectives in a tough market, resulting in another sound quarter of operational and financial performance," outgoing BT Chief Executive Officer Gavin Patterson said.Consumer goods giant Unilever fell 2.0% despite posting a significant increase in profit in 2018, as organic growth was light on consensus forecasts.The consumer goods company, which owns brands such as Dove soap and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, reported a pretax profit of EUR12.38 billion, up 53% from EUR8.15 billion in 2017. Unilever said that this was the result of improved margins, with its underlying operating margin improved to 24.6% from 16.5%.Organic sales growth was 2.9%, below consensus forecasts of 3.5%. For 2019, Unilever added, underlying sales are expects to be "in the lower half" of the 3% to 5% range. In the FTSE 250, RPC was up 4.0% on hopes of a takeover battle for the plastic products maker.Berry Global Group said it is considering a possible cash offer for RPC, which comes just over a week after the London-listed firm finally managed to clinch a GBP3.3 billion bid from Apollo Management.To come in the economic events calendar on Thursday are German unemployment figures at 0855 GMT and Italian and eurozone GDP readings at 0900 GMT and 1000 GMT respectively.