Card Factory Share News (CARD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London closed higher on Tuesday as a generally upbeat market was helped by robust local employment data and JD Sports Fashion ending higher on another High Street-beating performance.The FTSE 100 index closed 0.4% higher at 7,469.92. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index ended up 0.6% at 19,923.38, and the AIM All-Share index finished 0.3% higher at 950.94.The Cboe UK 100 closed up 0.5% at 12,679.06, the Cboe UK 250 up 0.6% at 17,855.34, and the Cboe UK Small Companies up 0.3% at 11,408.80.At the close Tuesday, sterling was softer against the US dollar. The pound was quoted at USD1.3050 at the London close, lower from USD1.3109 late Monday."Fresh six-month highs were achieved on the FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 today as the bullish sentiment continues," CMC Markets UK Markets Analysts David Madden said. "The fact Brexit has been delayed, and the European Central Bank are willing to launch another round of targeted lending later this year has helped investor appetite. US-China trade talks have been moving in the right direction recently, and that has been a factor too."In mainland Europe, in Paris the CAC 40 equities index ended up 0.4%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended up 0.8%.UK sentiment was also helped after the headline unemployment rate remained at nearly 45-year lows over the three months to February. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed unemployment held steady at 3.9%. The ONS also reported employees average weekly earnings also rose 3.5% in February, unchanged on the month prior. "Despite ongoing uncertainties over the UK's withdrawal from the EU, the latest UK labour market figures showed that economic trends remained firm in the early parts of 2019, matching developments seen in the official GDP data," Lloyds Bank analyst Nikesh Sawjani said. "Employment rose 179,000 in the three-months to February," Sawjani added. "Such a strong pace of job creation proved sufficient to deliver a further 27,000 fall in the level of unemployment, which kept the unemployment rate at 3.9%, matching the lows not previously seen in the UK since 1975.""Looking at the detail, the composition of employment growth also made pleasing news," Sawjani continued. "More than three-quarters of the 179,000 total gain in employment in the three months to February were classified as being full-time (138,000)."Towards the top of the blue chips, the delay to Brexit continued to boost travel firms. easyJet closed 2.4% higher, British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines finished 1.8% up, and cruise liner owner Carnival closed 1.6% higher. Financial firms were also benefiting from upbeat results from some US peers including asset manager BlackRock. BlackRock reported its total assets under management jumped to USD6.52 trillion for the three months ended March, after having dropped below USD6 trillion in late 2018. During the period, it saw net inflows of USD65 billion on the year earlier. Net income, however, fell to USD1.05 billion from USD1.09 billion. This was equivalent to a fall to USD6.61 per share from USD6.68 per share, considerably better than the USD6.13 expected by analysts. Prudential closed 2.7% higher, St James Place up 2.8%, and Schroders 2.3% up. At the other end of the blue chips, Rio Tinto ended 0.6% lower after it lowered its annual iron ore production guidance as operations were hit by a fire and a tropical cyclone, also affecting shipments. For the three months ended March, the FTSE 100-listed miner reported that its Pilbara operations in western Australia recorded a 9% year-on-year decline in iron ore production to 76.0 million tonnes of which 64.1 million was net to Rio Tinto. Consequently, iron ore shipments decreased by 14% to 69.1 million tonnes of which 58.2 million tonnes were net to Rio Tinto. Production was impacted by a fire at Cape Lambert A in January and significant disruptions caused by tropical cyclone Veronica in March. Rio Tinto now expects its Pilbara shipments in 2019 to be between 333 million and 343 million tonnes, down from 338 million and 350 million tonnes previously. The main market movements, however, were to be found on the FTSE 250.At the top of the mid-caps, JD Sports Fashion and Card Factory were higher on well-received results. JD closed 8.4% higher after annual revenue and profit jumped despite challenges in its core UK market after seeing encouraging same store sales growth. For the year ended February 2, the FTSE 250 listed clothing retailer reported pretax profit widened 15% to GBP339.9 million as revenue grew 49% year-on-year to GBP4.72 billion, helped by the contribution from its Finish Line acquisition in the US. JD proposed a 1.44 pence per share final dividend, up 5.1% from 1.37p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend was boosted 4.9% to 1.71p per share from 1.63p the year before. JD added despite the continued uncertainty arising from the stalled Brexit process, it remains "confident in the international potential" of its proposition.Card Factory closed 7.3% higher after raising the prospect of another special dividend despite reporting its annual profit narrowed after like-for-like store sales were hurt by continued weakness of UK footfall during the year.For the year ended January, the greetings card retailer announced pretax profit narrowed 8.3% to GBP66.6 million on the year prior. This was despite revenue increasing 3.3% to GBP436.0 million from the year before helped by online sales and new 51 store openings. Card Factory proposed an unchanged 6.4 pence per share final dividend, also resulting in a flat full year payout of 9.3p. Yet it raised the possibility of a further special dividend with its interim results. "Card Factory has dangled the prospect of another special dividend in front of shareholders, helping to add some positive news to what is otherwise a relatively weak profit result," CityIndex Senior Market Analyst Fiona Cincotta said. "It's always a concern when sales at existing stores are going backward while you're rolling out dozens of new ones. And that's the position Card Factory finds itself in," Cincotta added. "Low levels of consumer confidence are no doubt partly to blame for the fall in store footfall and management is right when they say the single greeting cards market is showing signs of resilience."Sinking to the bottom of the mid-caps, Galliford Try closed 21% lower after announcing plans to scale back its construction business, resulting in an up to GBP40 million dent in profit for the current year. The housebuilder is undertaking a strategic review of its Galliford Try and Morrison Construction businesses, which will lead to a reduction in size of the unit. The construction unit will instead focus on its "key strengths" where it has a "track record of success". As a result of the review, Galliford expects pretax profit for the year ending June will be held back by between GBP30 million and GBP40 million lower than current consensus analyst forecast of GBP156 million. "Can you even make a profit at construction anymore? Always a fairly low margin activity, the number of disappointments from this industry just continues to build up," AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould said."Cut throat competition in the sector resulted in a lack of discipline and low-ball bids for contracts which made turning a profit nearly impossible," Mould continued. "Galliford appears to be acknowledging the need for a more disciplined approach." The euro was quoted at USD1.1292, lower compared to USD1.1301 late Monday.On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was trading 0.2% higher, the S&P 500 up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.4%. Gold was quoted at USD1,275.05 an ounce at the London equities close, lower versus USD1,287.83 Monday.Brent oil was quoted at USD71.12 a barrel at the London equities close, lower than USD71.50 Monday.In the economic calendar on Wednesday, UK producer prices and consumer prices figures are delivered at 0930 BST.Elsewhere in Europe, eurozone current account data is released at 0900 BST with trade balance and consumer price index figures at 1000 BST. Earlier in the day, China releases gross domestic product figures at 0300 BST alongside industrial production and retail sales prints. In Japan, trade balance figures will be published at 0050 BST with industrial production coming out at 0530 BST. In the US, trade balance data is printed at 1330 BST after mortgage applications figures are released at 1200 BST. In UK corporate events on Wednesday, first quarter results are due from support services firm Bunzl, oil & gas industry services company Hunting, property group SEGRO, asset manager Quilter and cybersecurity firm Avast.Meanwhile, trading statements are expected from estate agent Countryside Properties, private hospital firm Mediclinic International and currency manager Record.