Coca-Cola HBC Share News (CCH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London ended mixed on Thursday, with the FTSE 100 touching a fresh four-month high after strong gains from Micro Focus International and AstraZeneca and weakness in the pound. The FTSE 100 closed up 6.17 points, or 0.1% at 7,197.01. The large cap index hit an intraday high of 7,232.83 in afternoon trade - its highest level since October. The FTSE 250 ended down 74.24 points, or 0.4%, at 18,898.20, and the AIM All-Share closed up 1.18 points, or 0.1%, at 911.66. The Cboe UK 100 ended up 0.2% at 12,236.76, the Cboe UK 250 closed down 0.3% at 16,854.19, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.1% at 11,224.50.In Paris the CAC 40 ended down 0.2%, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt ended 0.7% lower. "The FTSE 100 has remained in a bullish mode today, with the market gaining ground amid a weakening pound and continued optimism over US-China trade talks. Markets are clearly following the lead of businesses in factoring in the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, with further downside for the pound helping take GBP/USD into the lowest level in a month," said IG market analyst Joshua Mahony.On the London Stock Exchange, Micro Focus International ended as the best blue chip performer, up 13% after the software firm extended its share buyback programme, putting the woe created by the takeover of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's software business behind it. Micro Focus has decided to extend its share buy-back programme by a further USD110 million. In August 2018, the company announced a USD200 million buy-back programme which was extended in November 2018 to USD400 million.It declared a final dividend of 58.33 cents per share, taking the total dividend per share to 151.26 cents for the 18 month period. On a statutory basis, the FTSE 100 company made pretax profit of USD34.1 million for the 18 months to October-end, on a revenue of USD4.75 billion."Today's full year results show some signs it can regain its credibility with investors in this regard as both cash flow, debt and revenue come in better than expected, the dividend is hiked and its share buyback scheme is extended," AJ Bell's Russ Mould said. AstraZeneca closed up 7.5% after the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker posted particularly strong annual sales growth from its Oncology segment, with lung cancer drug Tagrisso set to become its biggest seller in 2019. Net sales revenue for 2018 came in at EUR6.66 billion, up 2.1% year-on-year against analyst consensus of EUR6.65 billion. Comparable earnings before interest and tax were EUR680.7 million, 9.6% higher on 2017, compared to consensus of EUR682.3 million. Overall product sales in 2018 were USD21.05 billion, an increase of 4.5% from USD20.15 billion the year before. Consensus was for USD21.00 billion."With the firm finally starting to grow sales once again, there is a hope that the pharma sector will start to gain some traction from investors. The sharp jump in AstraZeneca has driven the share-price to a two-month high, with the raft of new drugs on the market raising hope that the stock will reach new highs.," said IG's Mahony.At the other end of the large cap index, Coca-cola HBC closed down 6.6% after the soft drinks bottler said revenue marginally beat the market's expectations, though earnings came in slightly short, as currency movements proved a headwind. Looking forward, Coca-Cola HBC is "well-placed" to withstand expected economic slowdown in many of its markets, but it still expects volumes to grow across all segments in 2019. Nigeria should return to volume growth, the firm added. In the FTSE 250, Lancashire Holdings ended the best performer, up 7.1% after the insurer returned to a profit in 2018, with underwriting operations also becoming profitable once again. The group posted a pretax profit of USD33.6 million for 2018, compared to a loss of USD72.9 million in 2017. In 2017, Lancashire cut its dividend after swinging to a loss after a year filled with a series of natural catastrophes.Lancashire is paying a final dividend of 10 cents per share for 2018, taking the year's total to 35 cents after paying just 15 cents in 2017. At the other end of the midcaps, ConvaTec ended the worst performer, down 17% after the wound dressings maker promised "swift and strong action" on its "failures in execution" after its profit increased significantly in 2018 but fell short of company guidance. The company's pretax profit was USD201.2 million for the year to December 31, rising 23% from USD164.0 million in 2017. Overall, revenue grew 4.0% to USD1.83 billion from USD1.76 billion but organic growth was only 0.2%, far below ConvaTec's forecast organic growth of 2.5% to 3.0%. ConvaTec's adjusted earnings before interest and taxation margin in 2018 was 23.4%, falling from 25.9% in 2017. This decline was below ConvaTec's guidance for a 24% to 25% margin.Restaurant Group closed down 11% after the Wagamama restaurant chain owner said Chief Executive Officer Andy McCue will leave the company, citing "extenuating personal circumstances" for the "untimely" departure.The pound was down, quoted at USD1.2777 at the London equities close, compared to USD1.2870 at the close Wednesday.The pound came under selling pressure on Thursday amid renewed fears over Brexit and comments by a Bank of England official that interest rates may be cut in a no-deal scenario.BoE policymaker Gertjan Vlieghe, an external member of the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee, warned that interest rates are more likely to be cut than hiked if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal."In the case of a no-deal scenario, I judge that an easing or an extended pause in monetary policy is more likely to be the appropriate policy response than a tightening," he told an audience in London.The rate setter also said that Brexit has already cost the British economy at least GBP80 billion, or GBP800 million a week, since the referendum.The euro was marginally lower, quoted at USD1.1275 at the European equities close, against USD1.1288 late Wednesday, following lacklustre economic data from the continent. Compared with the same quarter of 2017, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 1.2% in the euro area and by 1.4% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter, slowing from 1.6% and 1.8% respectively in the third quarter.Meanwhile, Germany's economy stagnated in the fourth quarter of 2018, thus it avoided a technical recession, which is two consecutive quarters of contraction, preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Gross domestic product was unchanged from the third quarter, when the economy shrunk 0.2%. Economists were looking for a modest increase of 0.1%. Stocks in New York were lower at the London equities close, following disappointing US retail sales figures.The DJIA was down 0.5%, the S&P 500 index down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.2%.The US Commerce Department said retail sales fell by 1.2% in December after inching up by a revised 0.1% in November. Economists had expected retail sales to rise by 0.2%, matching the uptick originally reported for the previous month.Excluding a jump in auto sales, retail sales plunged by an even steeper 1.8% in December after coming in unchanged in November. Ex-auto sales had been expected to edge up by 0.1%.Underlying sales figures were also troubling, however, as closely watched core retail sales, which exclude autos, gasoline, building materials and food services, tumbled by 1.7% in December after an upwardly revised 1.0% jump in November."It's possible the monthly swings are due to seasonal adjustment problems, but there is no hiding that there was a definite tailing off of momentum at the end of 2018," said Michael Pearce, US economist at Capital Economics.On the corporate front, Coca-Cola Co reported a profit for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss in the year-ago period that included a hefty one-time charge related to the US tax reform.The soft drinks maker said fourth-quarter net income attributable to shareholders was USD870 million or USD0.20 per share, compared to net loss of USD2.75 billion or USD0.65 per share in the previous-year quarter.However, Coca-Cola said organic sales growth was likely to slow in 2019, and warned revenue at group level was expected to be hindered by foreign exchange fluctuations.Coca-Cola shares were down 7.7% in New York. Brent oil was higher, quoted at USD64.20 a barrel at the London equities close from USD63.45 at the close Wednesday. The North Sea benchmark hit its highest level in 2019 of USD64.78 in morning trade. Oil prices extended gains for the third successive session on Thursday as Chinese trade data beat expectations and optimism prevailed that the US and China might reach an agreement in trade talks.Oil prices were also rallying on OPEC-led supply cuts and positive economic data from China.Chinese exports rose 9.1% year-on-year in January, defying economists' expectations for a 3.2% fall. Imports fell 1.5% year-on-year, which was much smaller than the 10% slump economists had forecast."The January trade data were much stronger than anticipated but seasonal volatility caused by annual shifts in the timing of Chinese New Year make it difficult to get a good grip on underlying trends at this time of year," Capital Economics economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said.Gold was quoted at USD1,310.88 an ounce at the London equities close, lower than USD1,315.60 late Wednesday.The economic events calendar on Friday has inflation readings from China at 0130 GMT, UK retail sales numbers at 0930 GMT and US import prices at 1330 GMT.The UK corporate calendar on Friday has annual results from warehouse property investor SEGRO, hotel operator Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and state-backed lender Royal Bank of Scotland Group.