Cobham Share News (COB)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were flat at midday as investors absorbed Thursday's bounty of company results.Gains for reporting firms British America Tobacco, Smith & Nephew and RELX in the FTSE 100 were being offset by less positively received updates from Schroders, Royal Dutch Shell and Compass.Focus in the economic calendar, meanwhile, is on the European Central Bank's latest policy announcement at 1245 BST followed by a press conference with President Mario Draghi at 1330 BST.The FTSE 100 was unchanged at 7,658.26 Thursday midday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was down 0.1%, or 11.83 points, at 20,741.77. The AIM All-Share index was down 0.3% at 1,097.95.The Cboe UK 100 was flat at 12,978.94, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.1% at 18,884.15, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.2% at 12,422.07.In mainland Europe on Thursday, the CAC 40 in Paris was up 0.5% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was up 1.3% at midday.Germany's automotive-heavy DAX was outperforming European peers as car makers rallied after the US and the EU agreed on Wednesday to ease trade tensions.US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the outlines of the deal after a White House meeting.Trump said the two sides would "work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods."In Frankfurt, Volkswagen was up 3.1%, BMW up 3.0% and Mercedes-owner Daimler 2.4% higher on hopes this agreement means Trump will avoid imposing tariffs on European car imports.New York is called to open mostly lower on Thursday as investors eye another packed earnings session in the US as well. The Dow Jones is seen up 0.1%, but the S&P called 0.2% lower and the Nasdaq set to drop 0.8%.The tech-heavy Nasdaq's decline stems from Facebook missing revenue and monthly active users estimates after the market close on Wednesday.The social media network, down 17% in pre-market trade, on Wednesday said second-quarter profit rose to USD5.11 billion, or USD1.74 per share, from USD3.89 billion, or USD1.32 per share, last year.Revenue for the quarter surged 42% to USD13.23 billion, but analysts had expected this to come in at USD13.36 billion. Monthly active users rose 11% to 2.23 billion, while market expectations were for 2.25 billion.To come before Wall Street opens on Thursday are earnings from Comcast - the media company currently locked in a battle with Twenty-First Century Fox to buy Sky - payment services provider MasterCard, fast food chain McDonalds, and American Airlines.After the close are results from online retailer Amazon.com and coffee shop chain Starbucks.Amid London's own plethora of corporate releases, British American Tobacco was the best performer in the FTSE 100, up 5.4%.The tobacco giant - owning the Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes - said interim revenue and profit rose as it expects another "good" year of growth.For the six months ended June, pretax profit grew 31% to GBP3.97 billion from GBP3.03 billion the year prior. This was after revenue rose 57% to GBP11.64 billion from GBP7.42 billion the year before. Cigarette volumes climbed 10% to 345.0 billion sticks in the period.In second place was Smith & Nephew, 3.7% higher after the medical devices maker said interim revenue rose though profit was hit as it advanced a cost savings programme. Revenue for the first half of the year rose 4.3% to USD2.44 billion from USD2.34 billion, though pretax profit slipped 11% to USD341 million from USD383 million.In the half, the Accelerating Performance & Execution programme, initiated at the end of 2017, incurred restructuring costs - primarily cash - of USD58 million. Smith & Nephew said the actions undertaken should, however, result in annualised benefits of more than USD50 million. The APEX programme is expected to drive an annualised benefit of USD160 million by 2022 for a one-off cost of USD240 million."Our first impression is that while the results were nothing stellar, they were in line to slightly better than consensus, and revenue trend-wise not too dissimilar to Q1. Guidance for 2% to 3% underlying revenue growth and trading margins at or above 2017 levels was also maintained, which we think will come as a relief," said analysts at Berenberg.AstraZeneca gained 3.0% as half-year revenue and profit fell, but the drugmaker held its annual guidance. Total revenue for the first half of the year fell 1% at actual exchange rates, down 5% at constant currencies, to USD10.33 billion. Product sales rose 2% at actual exchange rates to USD10.02 billion but externalisation revenue - which includes royalties and milestone payments - was down 53% to USD318 million.Cost of sales rose 16% to USD2.15 billion, with pretax profit falling 27% to USD786 million from USD1.07 billion last year.RELX advanced 2.9% after the Anglo-Dutch information and events company reported a flat performance in the first half of its current financial year, but was confident in delivering a year of earnings growth.The company said the six months to June 30 saw revenue down 1.4% to GBP3.65 billion, from GBP3.70 billion the year before, while adjusted profit before tax remained broadly flat at GBP1.05 billion.At the bottom of the index was SSE, down 5.6% as the stock went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.Investment manger Schroders shed 3.8% despite lifting its interim dividend payout on the back of a rise in earnings and total assets under management.The company, however, added that no new business was generated by the asset management unit in the first half as inflows from institutional clients were offset by outflows in the intermediary sales channel.Schroders recorded pretax profit of GBP371.1 million for the six months to June-end, up from GBP342.8 million in the comparative year-ago period, on revenue of GBP1.09 billion and GBP974.4 million, respectively. It raised its interim dividend by 3% to 35 pence per share from 34p paid a year ago.GlaxoSmithKline was 3.4% lower as the pharmaceutical firm said an advisory panel of US Food & Drug Administration has recommended against approval of mepolizumab for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a type of lung condition that causes breathing difficulties.Glaxo said the Pulmonary Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee has voted that the risk-benefit profile was not adequate to support approval of mepolizumab as an add-on treatment for the reduction of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.The panel also voted that there was not substantial evidence of the efficacy but there was adequate evidence of the safety of mepolizumab, the company said. The committee suggested further data to characterise the patient population that would be most likely to benefit from mepolizumab.The US FDA advisory committees provide non-binding recommendations for consideration by the FDA. Royal Dutch Shell 'A' shares were down 2.4% with 'B' shares down 2.9% as a sharp rise in earnings failed to live up to consensus, with a USD25 billion share buyback unable to make up for the disappointment.Current cost of supplies earnings attributable to shareholders including identified items for the three months to June 30 rose sharply to USD5.23 billion from just USD1.92 billion last year, up to USD10.93 billion for the first half of 2018 overall from USD5.30 billion a year prior.However, this sharp rise was below analyst consensus, which had expected CCS earnings for the second quarter to come in at USD5.96 billion. Shell launched a buyback of "at least" USD25 billion for the period 2018 to 2022. For the first tranche of this, Shell is to purchase shares up to USD2 billion of shares over a period of three months.Contract caterer Compass was 2.5% lower after it reported trading was progressing well, though with margins slightly behind last year with a "challenging" cost and volume environment in the UK.In the company's financial third quarter, overall organic revenue grew 5.7% - up 5.1% excluding the impact of Easter, which fell in Compass's second quarter - driven by strong net new business in North America, an acceleration in Europe and good progress in Rest of World. Whilst the margin for the nine months was "slightly lower" than last year, the contract caterer said it remains on track to deliver "modest" margin progression for the full year. At the top of the FTSE 250 was Vesuvius as the molten metal flow engineering firm said it sees annual trading profit slightly ahead of consensus.The firm said said revenue for the first half of 2018 rose 7.9% to GBP897.0 million from GBP831.5 million last year, as pretax profit soared 44% to GBP87.8 million from GBP60.8 million. Trading profit grew 15% to a "record" GBP99.6 million, as return on sales improved by 70 basis points to 11.1% from 10.4%."This strength in underlying markets and our continuing implementation of self-help measures underpins our confidence that our full year trading profit will be marginally above the current consensus market expectation," Chief Executive Patrick Andre said.Cobham was the worst mid-cap performer, shedding 11% after the defence firm warned on a GBP40 million charge due to delays related to its US KC-46 tanker programme. In addition, US aerospace firm Boeing has made "as yet unquantified damages assertions" relating to the programme and is withholding payment of Cobham's KC-46 Centerline Drogue System and Wing Aerial Refuelling Pods invoices. Cobham said it is formally disputing Boeing's claims.