BTG Share News (BTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 was largely unchanged early Tuesday, with easyJet and Vodafone respectively topping and tailing the blue-chip index."In focus today will be UK wages growth, for its inflationary read-across and potential influence on market expectations for the Bank of England's next interest rate rise. Strong wage growth could push GBP higher, hurting the FTSE, the reverse being true if wage growth slows," remarked Michael van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.UK average earnings, the ILO unemployment rate and claimant count all are due at 0930 BST.Sterling was quoted at USD1.3552 early Tuesday ahead of the data, down from USD1.3584 at the London equities close on Monday.Average earnings growth including bonus is seen slipping to 2.6% for the three months to March, compared to last month's 2.8%. Excluding bonus, average earnings are set to improve to 2.9% from 2.8%.Tuesday's report comes after the Bank of England last week kept UK interest rates on hold, as widely expected, and lowered its growth forecast for this year to 1.4% from 1.8%.The FTSE 100 index was slightly lower, down just 2.85 points at 7,708.13 early Tuesday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was up 0.1%, or 21.34 points, at 20,822.29. The AIM All-Share index was up 0.1% at 2,730.13.The Cboe UK 100 index was flat at 13,078.21. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.1% at 19,055.33, and the Cboe UK Small Companies flat at 12,751.42.In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both down 0.2%.The best performer in the FTSE 100 early Tuesday was easyJet, up 3.2% after the low-cost airline said its interim loss narrowed on revenue which topped GBP2 billion.Total revenue came in at GBP2.18 billion for the six months to March 31, up from GBP1.83 billion last year, while its pretax loss narrowed to GBP68 million from GBP236 million.Headline pretax profit excluding its new operations at Tegel airport in Berlin was GBP8 million, compared to last year's loss of GBP212 million."easyJet has delivered an excellent performance reporting a profit of GBP8 million, one of our best results ever in the winter trading period (excluding the one-off impact of the start-up of our Tegel operation). Total revenue was above GBP2bn for the first time, up almost 20% year-on-year. This was driven by a record number of passengers at 37 million and our highest ever ancillary sales," said Chief Executive Johan Lundgren.Hargreaves Lansdown was 1.3% higher after it said it saw net new business of GBP3.3 billion in the four month to April 30, with year-to-date net new business of GBP6.6 billion. The company had assets under administration of GBP88.8 billion as at April 30.Year-to-date total net revenue of GBP366.6 million was up 16%, Hargreaves said.Chief Executive Chris Hill said the company had "another good tax year end".Vodafone was the worst performer, 3.4% lower after it reported organic earnings growth came in above guidance, while also saying Chief Executive Vittorio Colao will depart later this year.Total revenue for the year ended March 31 was down 2.2% to EUR46.57 billion, "primarily due to the deconsolidation of Vodafone Netherlands and FX movements".Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 12% on an organic basis to EUR14.73 billion from EUR14.15 billion. Pretax profit rose to EUR3.88 billion from EUR2.79 billion last year.Separately, Vodafone said that, effective October 2018, CEO Colao will be succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Nick Read. Colao was appointed CEO in July 2008.At the firm's annual general meeting on July 27, Deputy CFO Margherita Della Valle will succeed Read as CFO and will join the board, while Read will become CEO-designate.Land Securities was down 1.0% after it said said it had an "active and successful year", though it slipped to a pretax loss.Total revenue came in at GBP852 million, up from GBP787 million last year, as it swung to a pretax loss of GBP251 million for the year ended March 31 from a GBP112 million profit.The company recommended a final dividend of 14.65p per share, bringing its total payout for the year to 44.2p, up from 38.55p last year.The real estate investment trust saw an ungeared total property return of 4.3% in the period, underperforming the IPD Quarterly Universe's 10.1%.BTG was the worst performer in the FTSE 250, down 5.0% after it said revenue rose in its recently-ended financial year, though it turned to a pretax loss.The healthcare firm said revenue rose to GBP620.5 million from GBP570.5 million, though the company turned to a pretax loss of GBP70.6 million from a GBP31.6 million profit last year.In Asia on Tuesday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.6%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.9%.Released early Tuesday, China's National Bureau of Statistics said industrial production was up 7.0% on year in April, beating expectations for a 6.4% increase and up from 6.0% in March.The bureau also said that retail sales advanced an annual 9.4%, though this missed forecasts for a 10.0% rise and was down from 10.1% in the previous month.Elsewhere, Germany's economic growth halved in the first quarter, data from Destatis showed Tuesday.Gross domestic product grew 0.3% sequentially, slower than the 0.6% expansion seen in the previous quarter. GDP was expected to climb at a slightly faster pace of 0.4%.Nonetheless, Destatis said this was the 15th quarter-on-quarter growth in a row, contributing to the longest upswing phase since 1991.Still to come in Tuesday's economic calendar, eurozone first-quarter GDP readings are at 1000 BST.