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LONDON (Alliance News) - ITV leads the FTSE 100 Thursday after British Sky Broadcasting said it sold its 6.4% interest in ITV to John Malone's Liberty Global.
Liberty said it does not intend to make an offer to acquire the UK broadcaster.
The sale has been made at 185 pence per share, a small premium to ITV's closing price Wednesday of 182.95 pence. BSkyB said it intends to use the aggregate consideration of GBP481 million for general corporate purposes. ITV trades 5.1% higher at 193.20 pence per share, after touching an intraday high of 202.70p.
At the other end of the blue-chip index, Sports Direct International is the second biggest faller despite reporting full-year revenue and pretax profit growth, boosted by strong growth in its Sports Retail division, which recorded a 24% rise in revenue.
The UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue said it continues to trade in line with management expectations as strong retail growth drives the business, both in its stores and online.
Sports Direct shares trade 2.5% lower at 695.76 pence per share.
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MARKETS: The main UK stock indices are trading a little lower Thursday amid a dearth of domestic economic data and as investors exercise caution following the introduction of a new round of sanctions against Russia by the US and the EU.
Futures trading indicates that US stocks will follow the UK and Europe lower, with the DJIA pointing 0.2% lower, and the S&P 500 0.3% lower.
FTSE 100: down 0.6% at 6,743.14
FTSE 250: down 0.4% at 15,534.45
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.5% at 771.67
GBP-USD: down at 1.7102
EUR-USD: flat at 1.3529
GOLD: up at USD1,304.20 an ounce
OIL (Brent): up at USD107.71 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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Anglo American said its platinum production fell 40% in the second quarter as the now-finished platinum miners strike in South Africa hurt operations, but the majority of its other operations saw production increases during the period. The miner said its platinum production fell 40% to 358,000 ounces for the three months ended June 30 from 594,000 during the same period the previous year as workers from the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union only returned to work at the end of June. Anglo American said its iron ore production increased 2% to 11.5 million tonnes during the quarter from 11.3 million tonnes following strong performance at both its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa. The company said its export metallurgical coal production increased 10% and copper production by 6%.
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SSE said in a statement prepared for its annual general meeting that its financial outlook for 2014/15 is unchanged, and it is on course to give out an increased full-year dividend that keeps up with inflation despite customer losses in its first quarter. The major UK energy supplier is holding its AGM in Perth, Scotland on Thursday. It said that, in spite of challenging market conditions, it continues to expect that its adjusted earnings per share for 2014/15 will be around or slightly greater than the 123.4 pence achieved in the previous year.
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Commercial property investors Land Securities Group said it made a strong start to 2014, as it attempts to shift its retail portfolio towards "dominance, experience and convenience" through the sale of assets which do not fit well with its strategy going forward. In a first quarter interim management statement, the real estate investment trust said it sold the The Bridges shopping centre in Sutherland for GBP125 million, and acquired a 30% stake in Bluewater shopping centre, Kent for GBP696 million. In London the company said it signed GBP15.2 million worth of development lettings since April 1, with a further GBP6.7 million currently in solicitors' hands.
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Security and outsourcing group G4S said it has agreed to sell G4S Sweden to Sector Alarm Sverige AS in a GBP37.4 million deal, including cash and debt. The company said the disposal is part of the company's restructuring programme to restructure its portfolio as it works to improve its strategic focus, capital discipline and returns. "We have implemented a number of operational improvements in G4S Sweden in the last 12 months, and this sale realises an attractive premium for shareholders while providing customers and employees with the prospect of a sustainable business in Sweden," said CEO Ashley Almanza. G4S Sweden provides manned security and security systems to customers across Sweden.
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Digital inkjet printing technology group Xaar said revenue in the first-half to June 30 fell by around GBP7 million, although it expects higher levels of sales in the second half of the year, with full-year revenue of around GBP130 million compared with GBP134.1 million a year earlier. Xaar said it expects to report GBP60 million in revenue for the first half, compared with GBP67.2 million a year earlier. The company said it continues to maintain a strong balance sheet with net cash at June 30 of GBP48.1 million, compared with GBP53.5 million at December 31.
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Trinity Exploration & Production said it has signed a deal to acquire Centrica PLC's 80% interests in two offshore Trinidad blocks for a headline payment of USD23 million, while warning that it expects to be at the low end of full-year production guidance after production rates fell in its second quarter. The company with operations in Trinidad and Tobago said the agreement is for Centrica's interests in Blocks 1a and 1b, which contain four gas discoveries and have aggregate gross 2C resources of 268 billion cubic feet, increasing the company's resource base by 42%. Trinity said the gas is fully appraised but currently undeveloped, so the company is targeting first production from the project in 2017 or 2018 for sale to the domestic gas market in Trinidad.
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The UK government will have to guarantee the payment of BT Group's pension scheme should the company become insolvent, following a court of appeal ruling Wednesday, the Financial Times reported. The court of appeal decision confirmed an earlier High Court judgement. The government had challenged the need to cover pensions agreed after privatisation in 1984.
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BT also Thursday launched its new mobile service for small and medium-sized businesses, called 'BT One Phone', its re-entry into the mobile market after an over ten-year absence.
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GlaxoSmithKline faces further scrutiny after it has emerged that its staff were caught bribing Chinese officials more than a decade ago, The Financial Times reported late Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Glaxo also found problems with its China vaccine business in 2001, which led to the firing of about 30 employees, the report said. The US Department of Justice, which is investigating the current allegations of bribery at Glaxo, will take a close look at the earlier scandal. Glaxo is currently weathering investigations from Chinese authorities over allegations it paid up to USD500 million to doctors and hospital executives over the past six years.
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AIM MOVERS
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Amongst the gainers on AIM Thursday is Petrel Resources; the oil and gas exploration and development company, in tandem with Clontarf Energy, said it has reached an agreement with the Ghanaian authorities during legal proceedings related to the Tano 2A exploration licence in the country. Also trading higher is Starcom after it signed a supply and support agreement with a major new distributor operating across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Central America. AFC Energy shares were boosted after it said it has entered into a breakthrough deal with Daniel Inc, a fuel cell-focused power plant owner and development company in South Korea, to sell fuel cell systems to Daniel for a potential sales value of roughly USD15 million. Shares in Finsbury Food are up; the group said it expects to report full-year profit head of market expectations and ahead of last year's figures, due to its actions to stimulate sales and reduce costs. At the other end of the market, Judges Scientific saw its shares fall as it said its trading performance for the first half of the 2014 had "proved challenging". Nighthawk Energy is trading lower after company said its total and average production rates have soared in the last year, but it has received disappointing initial logs from the Snow King 12-33 well in Colorado. London Capital Group Holdings is also trading lower; the group said it expects to report a swing to a half-year adjusted pretax loss, hit by its concentration on the competitive UK market and by reduced market volatility.
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Top Economics And General
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Eurozone inflation held steady at 0.5% as initially estimated in June, final data from Eurostat showed. Month-on-month, prices gained only 0.1%. Headline inflation continues to remain below the European Central Bank's target of 'below, but close to 2%'.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin labelled the latest US sanctions an act of "aggressive foreign policy" that will seriously undermine relations with Washington. "Unfortunately, those who plan foreign policy in the US are conducting an aggressive foreign policy and, in my view, a rather unprofessional one," Putin said Wednesday during a visit to Brasilia, according to a Kremlin transcript. The Russian president accused Washington of encouraging the Ukrainian government "to carry on the fratricidal war and the punitive operation" against separatist rebels in the country's east. "Such policies have no perspective," he said. Putin compared US policy on Ukraine with American intervention in countries like Iraq and Libya, which he said were "falling apart" as a result.
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EU leaders failed Wednesday to agree on top political appointments to the bloc at a specially-convened summit, delaying the decision until a new round of extraordinary talks on August 30. The EU is in the midst of a leadership overhaul, following elections in May. Successors need to be found most urgently for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and President Herman Van Rompuy. "To reach agreement on names for extremely important positions, it often takes time ... this is not done in one day," Van Rompuy said after the summit in Brussels. "I am absolutely certain that we will take a decision on August 30," he added.
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A brief truce was being observed in the Gaza Strip as Israel and Hamas suspended nine days of hostilities to allow civilians to stock up on essential supplies. Residents poured onto the streets of Gaza City as the five-hour ceasefire took effect. In Israel, especially in the south, people were taking a breather from shelters. There was heavy traffic on the coastal enclave's main streets, as residents went out to buy food, water and medicine. Many visited their destroyed homes, shifting through the debris for items such as chairs and blankets. Others checked in wounded relatives in hospital. Israel agreed to the humanitarian truce from 10 am until 3 pm at the request of the United Nations.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)
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13:30 US Housing Starts and Building Permits
13:30 US Jobless Claims
15:00 US Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey
15:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage
18:35 US Fed's Bullard speech
20:00 US American Petroleum Institute Monthly Report
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Friday's Key UK Corporate Events
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Development Securities Interim Management Statement
Record Trading Statement
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Friday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)
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02:30 China House Price Index
09:00 EU Current Account
14:55 US Reuters/Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Preliminary
15:00 US CB Leading Indicator
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